It’s sobering to think about how fundamentally architecture affects and rules our lives. For millennia we as a species have been living, working and dying inside spaces created by the human imagination – or the palpable lack of it. If our homes are meant to be “our castles” – God help us all! Most of us (unblessed by coffers of cash) valiantly do our utmost to make the best of our homes. And our homes are to some degree an extension of who we are. Likewise, our public buildings and spaces.
Architecture Week offers us the opportunity to really think about and muse upon this oft neglected part of our lives. The hype, the nonsense, the ridiculous architectural divas and their ego trips, the glorious attempts to house humanity and its endeavours – in other words, the love, the pain and the whole damn thing of …Architecture.
To quote Guardian writer Tom Dyckhoff, “Architecture doesn’t really matter, of course. I mean, not in the way that life and death, NHS waiting lists, global warming and Middle East politics matter. It won’t kill you or feed you…but neither will Mozart, reading a book or shaking your thang to…Top of the Pops. That’s not the point…It’s here to give your life oomph. That’s what architecture should do, whether it’s Tate Modern or the shed in your back garden. It should make you swoon, gasp, double take, go cor, bloody hell.”
2006 marks the tenth anniversary of Architecture Week, the official public celebration of historical and contemporary architecture in the UK. The full programme is available at www.architectureweek.co.uk and features a stunning line-up of events both in London and throughout the UK
This year Architecture Week is delighted to partner LAB, the London Architecture Biennale. The theme of LAB 06 is “Change” and will focus upon the major changes taking place in the capital; in King’s Cross, the City and Southwark. It will happen along a route linking these areas, which winds its way through new developments and regenerated areas as well as historic places and spaces. It will form a 5km-long architectural exhibition punctuated by lectures, installations, student festival structures, films, theatrical events and parties.
The Biennale and Architecture Week will also link in with Bike Week www.bikeweek.org.uk and Sustainability Week www.sustainability.org.uk.
Between them, the Architecture Week and LAB programmes will have enough to satisfy even the biggest Archiphile. Special LAB events alone include; 54 Tours,
35 Exhibitions, 19 Talks, 5 Parties, 16 Installation, 8 Film Screenings, 5 Big Breakfasts, 5 Competitions, 40 Railings Exhibitions and 60 Herdwick Sheep.
Full events are listed at www.londonbiennale.org.uk.
The week aims to explore, investigate and celebrate the phenomenon of architecture and the built environment via the arts and culture; in innovative and engaging ways. The schedule of activities organised and co-ordinated through Arts Council England, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Architecture Centre Network offices across the country is a testament to the visionary and creative applications of the built form in the UK.
This year’s focus is “The Power of Ten” and will showcase more than 600 events across the UK; featuring celebrated architects, exhibitions, talks and tours. A wide range of events have been planned to interest everyone from the most academic and expert of architecture lovers, to quirky, cutting-edge designers, as well as families and children. The programme is bursting with all sorts of options and includes the free London launch event at Trafalgar Square. Many events are free or very accessibly priced.
Architecture Week Highlights include bus tours of London with architectural experts; talks by artists, designers, architects and psychoanalysts; a huge range of inspiring architecture exhibitions; architects on hand to offer advice on your home in exchange for a donation to a charity aptly named – Shelter! As well as a mobile greening tour where members of the public are invited to walk through London with a plant and leave it where they deem, “a little green is needed.”
RIBA Architect in the House: June 16 – 25
The Royal Institute of British Architects, Architect in the House scheme is also celebrating its tenth anniversary. RIBA chartered architects will give hour-long consultations in return for a minimum donation to Shelter www.shelter.org.uk
of £35. Members of the public, throughout the country can register for the scheme from 1 May 2006 at www.architecture.com and will then be matched with a local architect during Architecture Week.
Modernist Architecture tour & Drop-in Architects: June 25 1- 5pm
To celebrate the opening of Habitat’s new store on Regent Street and their sponsorship of Modernism: Designing a New World exhibition at the V&A, Habitat has organised an open-top bus tour of key Modernist buildings in central London with architect tour guides from the RIBA Trust. Starting at the Regent Street store with a drinks reception at 1pm, the tour will last approximately 2 hours. Places on the bus are free but bookings are essential. Habitat 121 – 123 Regent Street, London W1.
Architects will also be in store that afternoon to solve design dilemmas over a glass of wine in an informal drop-in ‘RIBA Architects’ Surgery’ between 1-5pm. Visit www.habitat.net for details.
RIBA Award winning buildings: June 16 – 25
Architecture Week will see RIBA award-winning buildings open to the public with special tours organised by the architects and project teams involved. Confirm details on the website.
RIBA Open Practice: June 16 – 25
Architects’ offices often become a playpen for new materials and ideas. Open Practice, invites you into these spaces, to see how architects work, their influences and the environments in which they design. This year the Open Practice organisers can also arrange for visits to architects’ practices by secondary school students. Confirm details on the website
Walking Tours to Widen the View: June 17 – 25
Various meeting places for six tours organised by the National Trust take in historical and contemporary buildings and discuss the people who built them and the social history of the area. Booking details & information on Tel: 0870 4288933. Visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Interactivity, Architecture and Science (working title)
Science Museum, Dana Centre, Queensgate, London, 29 June, 19.00 – 20.30.
An interactive discussion with Anthony Dunne (Dunne and Raby) Head of the Interactive Design MA at the Royal College of Art who will look at the relationship between interactivity in the context of architecture and the Science Museum.
The Science Museum’s Saturday walk tour will take in the work of Ben Kelly, Chris Wilkinson, Tom Heatherwick, Richard MacCormack, Antony Gormley, and Casson Mann. Enquiries: +44(0) 207 942 4040, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
Outside/in: Architecture, Psychoanalysis and Spaces In-between
Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London, 20 June, 19.00 – 21.00
Distinguished panellists Steve Pile, Faye Carey, Sharon Kivland and Lorens Holm will explore the relationships between psychoanalytic theory and practice, art and architecture: “How do the spaces we inhabit make us feel? Do the spatial qualities of art and architecture influence the ways in which we live? What kinds of spaces do psychoanalysts and therapists encounter when working with the inner life of the psyche?” Chaired by Jane Rendell. Enquiries +44(0) 20 7435 2002, www.freud.org.uk
Physical Space: creative collaborator:
Artist Richard Wilson, performer and choreographer Isabel Rocamore and site-specific theatre practitioner Ben Harrison will discuss the role of architecture and physical space as a creative, collaborative force in their work. Whitechapel Art Gallery, 80-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, 15 June, 19.00. Tickets: £5.00 and £3.50 / Booking: +44(0) 20 7522 7888, www.whitechapel.org
Kew Gardens’ New Alpine House:
Award winning architect Jim Eyre (Wilkinson & Eyre Architects) and Richard Wilford (RBG Kew, Alpine House) will give a talk and tour of Kew’s internationally renowned alpine collection – housed in the only public glasshouse constructed at Kew in the past 20 years; it combines striking design with cutting-edge technology. Entry via Jodrell Gate, Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, 21 June, 19.00 – 20.00. Tickets: £5.00 / Booking: +44(0) 20 8332 5607, www.kew.org
Around the World in 80 Days, Bus Tours:
A bus will link up the ICA with the SLG on their joint show “Around the World in 80 Days”, taking in buildings from Cleopatra’s Needle to the Whitechapel Mosque. Weekends of 17 & 18 and 24 & 25 June. South London Gallery, 65 Peckham Road, London. Tickets: £2.50 per person, per one-way tour, to include entrance to the ICA. Enquiries: +44(0) 20 7703 6120, www.southlondongallery.org
So whatever you do, start planning to enjoy this unique 10 day celebration of all things architecture-orientated. There really promises to be something for everyone; the fusspots, the purists, the curious, the intrepid and even the out-and-out enemies of architecture. So if you can’t find anything to interest you, you’re not really trying.
*Architecture Week Free Launch
Saturday June 11, 2006
Trafalgar Square*
Freeness (13.00 -14.00) and (15.00 – 16.00)
African, Asian, Caribbean and Chinese musicians from across England with a
DJ set by Blacktronica.
Urban Freeflow (13.00 – 14.00) and (15.00 – 16.00)
Free- running is about finding new ways through the city landscape – climbing, leaping and somersaulting obstacles in your path (such as giant stone Lions). The Urban Freeflow London team will show us how it’s done.
Architecture Week Speakers’ Corner Needs You! (14.00 – 15.00)
Hosted by Maxwell Hutchinson, architect and BBC LONDON 94.9FM broadcaster. This is your chance to address an audience in Trafalgar Square.
Red Ladies (16.00)
Performance group the Clod Ensemble salute the Square’s heritage as a site of political protest and stage a (mock) political rally. Be vigilant! Women dressed in red may try to solicit your support.
Superconductor (All afternoon)
A multitude of entrances, exits, corridors and courtyards in which to roam, explore or sit quietly and contemplate. A bold and adventurous temporary artwork by artists Gaia Alessi and Richard Bradbury.
Moose (All afternoon)
Moose is a graffiti artist with a difference. Leaving a temporary imprint through the environmental friendly process of removing dirt with water, he will change the way you see the Square.
Architecture Week 2005 17-25 June: Visit the www.architectureweek.org.uk website for a full programme and 600 events across the country.
For more detailed information go to:
www.architectureweek.org.uk
www.londonbiennale.org.uk
www.sustainability.org.uk
www.architectureweek.co.uk
www.bikeweek.org.uk
www.shelter.org.uk
www.architecture.com
www.habitat.net
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
www.architecturefoundation.org.uk
www.cabe.org.uk
www.architecturecentre.net
www.archinect.com
