The English capital celebrates sustainable architecture as London’s iconic buildings and private houses today open their doors in celebration of sustainable and innovative design.
Open House London is celebrating sustainable architecture and innovative design.
A highly-anticipated fixture in the capital’s cultural calendar, Open House London is a citywide celebration of the buildings, places and spaces where Londoners live and work. Visitors to the English capital today can take part in the free architecture festival, which provides a unique opportunity to see, explore and learn about London’s amazing design in one weekend, with more than 800 buildings of all kinds opening their doors to tourists and locals.
The festival has long held a tradition of satisfying the appetites of those who wish to see beautiful architect-designed residences first hand. Created in London 23 years ago by Open City, London’s leading independent architecture education organisation, the aim was to invite people to experience, explore and understand the value of a well-designed built environment. The concept was also successfully extended to events in other cities around the world, including New York, Dublin Galway, Tel Aviv Jerusalem, Barcelona, Rome, Helsinki, Slovenia and Chicago.
This year the event is showcasing stunning new additions from across the capital, including stylish designs that display creative solutions to building on difficult or overlooked sites. Prime examples include Courtyard House by Dallas Pierce Quintero – a 95sqm house built within the walls of an infill site shortlisted for an RIBA award.
Tin House, by Henning Stummel Architects, is another contender and makes use of an irregular urban site with interconnecting pavilions arranged to define a serene courtyard.
As has become expected, the festival features a number of intriguing conversions, such as Raw House, created by Mustard Architects. This light-filled home with an industrial aesthetic was recently featured on the highly-popular television show Grand Designs and also bagged third place at the New London Architecture Don’t Move, Improve awards.
This year’s festival offers architecture freaks the opportunity to view Trevelyan House, a modern redesign of a maisonette within a classic 1950s Denys Lasdun building in Hackney that is Grade II-listed.
The aim was to invite people to experience, explore and understand the value of a well-designed built environment
Also on the list of accessible locations are beautifully-designed private residences, innovative infrastructure projects and prestigious civic buildings. And it’s not just about the indoors, either – there is also a programme of neighbourhood walks, engin-eering and landscape tours, cycle rides and experts’ talks which are all offered for free.
The festival takes into account the increasing demand for housing that London faces in the coming years, a challenge that increases pressure on green and open spaces and on the need for more transport infrastructure.
As a result of this population development, the city is expanding into previously-underused areas, increasing density in others and creating whole new residential and business districts.
To make these places sustainable and liveable requires high-quality design, and Open House London helps even future residents to discover and explore the inspiring schemes that today’s architects, engineers and landscape designers are producing to respond to these challenges.
Highlights from this year’s programme include:
• Revealing London’s iconic skyline and towers, including the BT Tower, 30 St Mary Axe (better known as the Gherkin) and CityPoint
• Engineering walks and site visits to major construction and engineering sites, coordinated by the Institution of Civil Engineers
• Over 50 projects with landscape at their heart, thanks to the Landscape Institute
• Eco, zero-carbon and retrofit buildings, with the chance to talk to experts, see measures in action and discover how you can implement changes in your own home
• Open debates about ways to render London more sustainable
• Activities for families and children, ranging from architectural model-making to quiz trails.
The festival has turned out to be highly popular with both locals and travellers, with 87 per cent of participants last year stating that it offered the best way to see, explore and learn about the capital’s architecture.
A full programme of this year’s events is available online.
www.openhouselondon.org.uk