London Festival of ARchitecture History - 2008 - Fresh

Festival History

2008 Fresh

Returning for a third edition of the Festival, and this time with a programme spanning a whole month,  the 2008 programme explored ideas of “fresh thinking, ideas, talent, collaborations and cultures”. Londoners and visitors alike and included street installations, exhibitions, guided walks, cycle rides, boat tours of the city’s river and canals, parties, design workshops, debates, breakfast talks, and weekend street markets. Introducing the idea of Festival ‘hubs’, each with a focus weekend curated by a built environment professional, key locations included: Kensington, Chelsea and Knightsbridge; Canary Wharf, Southwark and Southbank; Stratford and Greenwich Peninsula; Kings Cross, Clerkenwell and City of London and Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia.

Highlight projects included two temporary road closures – one being Exhibition Road, the other Montague Place – which provided a unique opportunity to activate the areas, and rethink how they could work better for the city. 2008 also saw sell-out talks from a series of international architects, installations exploring the reinvention of the Bikeshed and providing spaces for rest and play, and a first ever Architectural Jelly competition!

2008 Fresh
2008 Fresh
2008 Fresh
2008 Fresh

LFA2008: Key Projects

2008 Fresh

Exhibition Road

Co-curated with the RIBA, the Festival joined the Exhibition Road Cultural Group to close Exhibition Road to traffic for the first time. Despite an overcast day, a wide range of architectural activities took place both in the street an...

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2008 Fresh

Sky Walk

The three-day closure and temporary pedestrianisation of Montague Place highlighted the potential of this street behind the British Museum as a significant public space and reinforced the connectivity between King's Cross/Euston Road a...

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2008 Fresh

Southwark Lido

Curated by The Architecture Foundation, Southwark Lido saw a derelict temporary lido beside a Southwark railway transformed into bathing and breathing space for the general public, local residents and Festival visitors alike. The proje...

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2008 Fresh

Jelly Competition

The Architecture Jelly competition was organised by Bompas & Parr, challenging architects to explore the relationship between building design and food. The winning entry was a jelly version of Fresh Flower by Anna Liu (of Tonki Lui), the mobi...

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2008 Fresh

Largest Living Room

The 2008 edition of the Festival saw a family of temporary pop-up public space furnitures including a sofa, armchair, bookshelf and lamp; for use across London’s rich mix of public spaces, starting at Somerset House. The project by Studio Weave...

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2008 Fresh

VocalEyes’ tours

Small groups of blind and partially sighted visitors toured five of London's most interesting buildings as part of the 'VocalEyes' tours. The tours brought together architects, building owners and users, blind and visually impaired people, design...

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2008 Fresh

Fresh Flower

This installation by Tonkin Lui was inspired by a fresh flower, which catches the eye and unfurles to make a sheltered public space, centred around a stage for talks and gatherings. The eleven petals of the installation arched out to create shade...

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