London Festival of ARchitecture History - 2020 - Power

You are here (or The Tooley Street Beacon) by Charles Holland Architects was conceived as a map come to life, helping people who use London Bridge to navigate their way around the area -  particularly on arrival to London Bridge Station -  and transforming an overlooked piece of pavement into a local landmark and meeting point. It has three elements: a scale map of the area around London Bridge printed onto the pavement, complete with street names and major landmarks, a giant signpost with local directions and information on it, and a bench for passers-by to take a breather. The project was the result of a design competition by LFA in partnership with Team London Bridge.

Find out more about the project and hear from the designer here.

The second edition of Manifestos - an annual collaboration with the Design Museum highlighting work by an emerging generation of voices in architecture who are expanding the parameters of what architecture can be, who London is for and what its future holds - saw ten emerging architects, designers and curators produced short videos setting out a new manifesto for change in London. The 2020 nominees included: Jayden Ali, Migrants Bureau, Counterspace, Laura Mark, Afterparti, ACAN, Lo Marshall, Ibiye Camp and Tom Atkinson.

Following the shift to an online Festival, we decided to create a video series asking 30 leading figures in the design and architecture world to nominate one object which they felt best represented architecture and ‘care’ – and produce a short two minute video explaining the reason behind their nomination. Nominations ranged from We had nominations ranging from the microphone and the table to the Ministry of Sound and Metropolitan Green Belt. 

Explore the videos using the link below.

Sitting Pretty was a design competition led by LFA and Network Rail to consider how better station seating might look across some of London’s finest train stations, with the potential for winning ideas to be replicated across stations by Network Rail in the future. The winning benches offered a variety of benefits to users, through their different approaches including opportunities to incite conversations between strangers, creating a sense of security and personal space, and incorporating sustainable, recycled and zero waste materials into the bench designs to raise awareness of the importance of re-purposing and re-inventing in railway stations of the future.

Find out more about the benches and hear from the designers here. 

The Architecture Bake Off has been a staple of the LFA for many years where architecture practices battle against each other to create cake-based representations of some of London’s most loved buildings. This year we tweaked the format to run the bake off online and opened up the competition to non-architects – with an individual category and kids category.   More than 100 people entered with 80 cakes being submitted. We charged a small entrance fee – which helped us raise hundreds of pounds for NHS Charities Together.  We asked people to bake one of five cakes – all loosely related around our theme of power, with one winner chosen by a panel of 'baker-tects' 

This years City Benches competition, once again invited architecture students, graduates and emerging practices to propose a creative public realm intervention that would transform the City landscape into a space for playful and engaging design. In addition,  this edition invited designers to respond to the City of London’s ‘Health and Wellbeing Strategy’ and consider the mental and physical wellbeing of people passing through the City. From calls to 'look up' to installations which explored the history of the city, each bench offered a playful take on the brief.

Find out more about each of the benches and hear from the designers here. 

The second edition of ‘Pew and Perches’ invited architecture and design students, recent graduates and emerging practitioners to deliver a playful new take on street furniture that celebrate the Royal Docks and the communities at home in the area. From a bench that draws attention to pollution in our waterways to a design inspired by an unusual shipment of elephants over 70 years ago, the 2020 ‘Pews and Perches’ benches combined imaginative design approaches with creative, sustainable material choices to provide locals, visitors and Londoners with unique new spaces to sit and make the most of their surroundings.

Find out more about the benches and hear from the designers here.

Organised by the Giant Dolls House project, Oxfam and Refugee Week, the (Virtual) Giant Dolls’ House project, asked children of all ages to creatively make a dolls’ house in a shoebox which engages participants in critical thinking and craft skills.  The project raised money for charity and encourage young people to think about space and their built environment in new ways.

LFA2020 saw us take our annual collaboration with Royal Academy transitioning online, and examined our theme of ‘power’. Split into  two sub themes – one looking at ‘people power’ and the other looking at ‘power of place’, presentations included contributions on the 'Powers of Utopia', and 'The Croydon Imaginarium' questions such as 'Is London’s global superbrand forever?' and 'Can Political Activism (Re)Design Cities?'.