#lfa2014

The story of Cloud Architecture's first POP-UP studio project at Old Spitalfields Market for the London Festival of Architecture 2014. The film features the team of seven designers:

Derek Ouyang, USA Sinan Mihelčič, Slovenia Klemen Kušar, Slovenia Domen Stražar, Slovenia Janž Omerzu, Slovenia Karolina Ostrowska, Poland Alice Eamsherangkoon, Thailand

As well as Eric Graham, Market Manager, Colin Rosie, Market Trader, and the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill London office.

Over the span of four weeks, the Cloud team engaged the local community in research and design to understand how the market should develop over the next twenty years. The end result was a presentation of their proposal to the new owners, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation.

From the filmmaker, Derek: This was a challenging film to make because I needed to compress four weeks of research and design content into a fifteen minute window. I chose to structure it as an augmentation of a recording of a live presentation at the SOM London office, and divide it into roughly three sections: Intro, Research, Design. The end result doesn't go too deeply into the design itself so for more of that detail please see the complementary slideshow presentation at slideshare.net/cloudarchitecture/popup-studio-at-old-spitalfields-market-lfa-2014

The London Underground system is the oldest in the world. Last year, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the tube, Chisel & Mouse was commissioned to recreate three underground stations designed in key architectural styles from the 20th century. 

Farringdon Station

Charles W. Clark's design for Farringdon Station is striking, long and sleek. The building is instantly recognisable. Clark was central to the design of much of London Underground's architecture.

Charles W. Clark's design for Farringdon Station is striking, long and sleek. The building is instantly recognisable. Clark was central to the design of much of London Underground's architecture.

Sudbury Town

Sudbury Town Station was opened in 1931. It was designed by the legendary Charles Holden, one of the 'big three' architects responsible for London Underground's stunning buildings. He designed many stations in the same period such as Acton Town, Arnos Grove and Southgate station, which he modestly likened them to "brick boxes with concrete lids"!

Our sculpture reflects the simplicity and uniformity that makes Sudbury Town Station so eye-catching and appealing.

Mornington Crescent

Mornington Crescent station was built in 1907. It is situated at the southern end of London's Camden Town and serves the Northern Underground Line. The iconic design for this station was conceived by the great architect Leslie Green.

Mornington Crescent has always had a special place in the hearts of BBC Radio 4 listeners, as the show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue features a game with the same name.

The London Festival of Architectureends on July 30th. To claim your 10% discount on the Chisel & Mouse London Underground range or any of our other sculptures, simple enter the code LFA2014 at the checkout.

Pop Up Studio Explores Participation Design at London Festival of Architecture

Courtesy of Cloud Architecture

As part of the London Festival of Architecture, Cloud Architecture is conducting a participation-based research and design project from a pop up studio in Old Spitalfields Market in central London. Running until June 20th, the project aims to engage visitors to the market with the ideas and process of architectural design studios, which members of the public rarely…

Today we had our first of a series of presentations to local design offices to focus on our architectural design concepts and POP-UP process. The SOM office in London's Broadgate Tower was supportive of our participatory design efforts and, being very close to Spitalfields Market, welcomed almost all of our design proposals as feasible interventions for the space. We're glad to have engaged one of the world's foremost practices in our London Festival of Architecture project and will take their inspiring feedback on to our next project!

The first day of our final exhibition was a success. We had over thirty interactions with the community ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. Of course, that is to be expected in the public realm. You can't solve every problem in design, but perhaps the POP-UP design brings us closer to a design environment in which the stakeholders understand the value and complexity of their own interdependence and can elevate the common ground between them before architects even have to step in. -- D

A thought crossed our minds today. Wouldn’t it be pretty awesome if we could regard unused public structures across the world as a point of information dissemination for more active citizenry and awareness. What if, this little initiative by us- to tell stories of architecture around these structures like the phoneboxes were to go viral? We’d be chuffed, alright (hell, yeah!)- but pretty excited about the possibilities it may present in every different context.