OCULUS and PechaKucha Night
05/07/2012.
London Festival of Architecture, [LFA] [LON]. Till July, 12th
metalocus, ANA SEGURA
metalocus, ANA SEGURA
The Oculus installation, being opened yesterday, is going to transform an under-used car-park in the heart of the West End with 7,000 military-grade sandbags into a temporary urban park for 7 days this summer as part of the London Festival of Architecture. This instalation, designed by Roz Barr Architects, marks the start of public consultation on the London Borough of Camden's proposals to remove parking bays permanently from South Crescent and free it up to become a permanent and much-needed public space for Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia.
The idea of a paving of sandbags was a response to the brief of building a temporary space in the city. We wanted to use a ready-made material that could through a new application form a new paving surface and seating area. The notion of using hessian sandbags – an object usually associated with either war or flooding – became appealing because of the World War II Eisenhower Centre in the twin Crescent at the other end of Alfred Place. It’s all about ‘making’ – crafting a space through a material application and creating a new public space.”
Roz Barr, Arch.
The hessian sandbags are used as a low-cost, ready-made building block to transform the Crescent with a newly crafted surface; creating a series of spaces, seating and a 120-seat amphitheatre topped by a suspended pool of water. The suspended pool, created from a steel ring supporting a membrane of transparent material filled with water, frames distorted views of the trees, buildings and sky above the amphitheatre and lends the installation its name.The sand used in the installation will be donated to Camden Parks for use in playgrounds throughout the borough.
Together with installation is going to take place "Defintely-Not-the-Olympics" PechaKucha, which is going to be about the topic of the role of Architects in the Olympics. Thirteen 6min. 40s. presentations made from architects and planners to partners and businnes directors.
Venue: NLA, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1E 7BT, London.
Date: Friday 6 July 2012, 18.30h.