The London Festival of Architecture, which launched in 2004, is Europe's biggest annual architecture festival. It lasts a month and that month is June so it kicks off this week. I clicked through the map-based listings trying to find events that were a) open yesterday, b) interesting c) free d) accessible during a tube strike. And I started at the LFA hub.
New London Architecture at The London Centre
3 Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH (Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm)
You may remember visiting the enormous model of London housed at NLA off Tottenham Court Road, the perfect plastic replica of inner London with all the potential new buildings highlighted. Well the good news is it's resurfaced in a giant room round the back of the Guildhall, indeed it's been there since 2023 and I'm just not terribly awake. You simply wander in, it's free, and not just in June but any time. The model stretches all the way from Wembley to Dagenham at 1:2000 scale, and is so detailed they've even got my balcony right. A slightly whiter shade shows what developments like Earl's Court and Barking Riverside might end up looking like (although Gallions Reach is very out of date and misses a lot of what's already there).
Across the room is the City of London model, this at 1:500 scale, with highly detailed illuminated models of all the buildings erected after 1980. It's ideal for architects trying to imagine how a new skyscraper might fit into the City and also an interesting focus for a school trip, You'll know all this if you've ever been to see it, and the good news is you can go and see it again. Go this month and there's also this...
Back in February TfL launched a trial of a new bus shelter design, indeed two designs, at 27 locations, But they haven't really said a lot about it, except in a rather wordy press release, whereas this explains more deeply including a table of handle-able materials. Pick up samples of the dark grey, red and wooden seating, also feel the difference between the refurbished metalwork in the type A shelters and the new stainless steel frames in type B. Also if you shine your phone light at the new red retroreflective roof material you can see how it's designed to reflect vehicle lights better at night.
The high level of interesting detail is because this display is presented not by TfL but their design partner Trueform. Did you know for example that the rounded roof is a deliberate echo of the New Routemaster bus, or that bus shelter glass is normally 6mm thick but here they're trialling 8mm? Annoyingly the one thing not on display is an actual bus shelter, this because it's only a teensy display and there wouldn't be room, but there is a list on the wall of where the nearest examples are (none of them especially near). It won't keep you more than a few minutes but if anyone's target audience for this kind of thing you lot are.
Some LFA 'events' appear to be projects that were happening anyway and just happen to be launching in June. In this case that's a line of 21 granite blocks stretched along one edge of St Paul's Cathedral's yard, essentially providing a fresh bank of seating for tourists and lingerers alike. What's special about the blocks is that they all used to be part of the Thames Embankment built in the 1870s by Joseph Bazalgette, then had to be removed in 2020 for the construction of London's newest deep sewer. Sustainability ensured a local reuse was sought, because why bring in new benches when salvaged granite is available literally down the road?
Additional work was required to cut out notches suitable for sitting, and not even the off-cuts were wasted because they were crushed to make the 3D-printed information board alongside. I don't think that part's finished yet because on my visit an important-looking stump was being sponged down by workmen in hi-vis. Also two official City types were dashing up and down the row measuring the larger gaps with a tape measure - twice, so it must have been important. Meanwhile several tourists plonked down on the granite and consumed the fish and chips or ice cream they'd just bought from the foodtrucks alongside, unaware that last month they'd have been crouching on the ground.
I only know the backstory because I stumbled upon a temporary pavilion explaining the project round the other side of the cathedral. This looks much more LFA, an ephemeral aluminium frame with flappy flags and information boards, also gabion feet containing 12 stones you're supposed to search for. A lot of effort's been put into creating a learning experience only for every passer-by I saw to completely ignore it, also this is inexplicably 160m away from the project it describes. However you can pick up a special If Stone Could Speak map from the neighbouring City Information Centre and maybe go on a proper geological circuit to see specific rocks in situ (digital map and programme of events here).
They love a pavilion at the LFA - useful, temporary and an opportunity for the designers to show off. This one's at Citypoint Plaza off Moorgate, essentially two wooden sheds and a mini bandstand with plenty of seating. The blurb describes them as "bespoke pavilions", "places to pause", "a vibrant destination" and "a bold playful setting", which is why you should never read the blurb. They're also "painted in the Brookfield Properties Activated colour palette" because sponsors insist on getting their moneysworth. Any other day they'd have been a lovely place to sit and wolf down a bowl of protein slop, but on the wettest day of the year the lack of roof had left surfaces splattered and rather less alluring.
Finally to a street corner close to Petticoat Lane, just outside the collectively right-on Colombian Coffee Company. Here on a former bike park the team from OUT Architects has designed a bench in the form of the circular stain left by a coffee cup because why not. A nice idea, negated only perhaps by the fact lunchtime was in full flow, the streets were abuzz with lunchbuyers and the bench was entirely empty. Apparently it's "a temporary pocket park" but "will remain in place after the festival", so make of that what you will. Whatever, don't feel the need to go see what I saw, why not delve into the programme for yourself and see if you can dig out an architectural gemortwo from the surrounding noise.
