The exhibition brought the architectural world together on the premise of CHANGE, the theme of the 2006 London Architecture Biennale.

Curator Matteo Cainer set a challenge for international architecture studios based outside the UK to take an outsider’s view of London and sketch a new and controversial project for the city. More than ninety international architectural studios sketched a visionary project to underline the importance and role of architecture in imagining the city’s future.

The show attempted to move beyond the current architecture scene, dominated as it is by cyberspace and video simulation, and beyond the familiar client restraints and fashionable image parade. Instead, the intent was to privilege the concept and the ‘sketch’ since it often has the power to communicate more clearly the essence of a revolutionary concept, rather than a project. Architects were free to choose a site and focus on issues of planning, landscape, infrastructure or building. The central challenge remained what it has been for centuries: to make architecture a vessel for new and controversial ideas.

The gathering together of architects with sketches and critics with words enticed visitors into a theatre of architectural imagination where a wide range of daring projects, conceived by some of the most inventive and newly emerging architects, came together in a panorama of architecture’s current potential and future promise.

Some of the world’s most internationally acclaimed and newly emerging architects took part in the exhibition: Daniel Libeskind (US), EMBT (Spain), Massimiliano Fuksas (Italy),Thom Mayne-Morphosis (US) Peter Eisenman (US), 3XN (Denmark),Tezuka (Japan), BIG (Denmark), Next Enterprise (Austria) Diller-Scofidio (US) among many more.

The show enticed visitors with a wide range of daring projects from architects around the globe. Many envisioned looking towards the river. Whether it was opening river banks, or installing wharfs and jetties, or relocating Central Park on the Thames, the river was prominent as a way forward for London. This created a platform for discussion and a critical way of imagining the future of a city.


The World in One City - A sketch for London
London, United Kingdom
Curator / Installation Designers

Location:
The Gallery,
York Way 34B, 
Regent Quarter, King’s Cross
London, United Kingdom.

Links:

 - BLDGBLOG