Venues across Nine Elms on the South Bank are opening their doors to the public for the 2016 London Festival of Architecture.
Guided tours, exhibitions and panel discussions are all on offer as part of the festival, which is set to run throughout June.
Some of London’s most innovative new buildings are being put up across the area, which is hotly tipped to become London’s newest and most vibrant residential and commercial quarter over the next few years.
Many of the designs will become the new backdrop for London, with the district a stone’s throw from Westminster. The area is also set to include two new Tube stations, connecting Nine Elms and Battersea to the Northern line, and a new river pier.
This year the festival organisers are throwing a spotlight on to Nine Elms on the South Bank as it emerges as a place where people want to live and work.
Highlights from the festival programme include:
• The Art of Designing Civic Spaces – Battersea Power Station Development Company and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) are hosting a talk for ticketed guests about the art of commissioning, creating and curating civic spaces. The event takes place between 6pm and 8.30pm on Tuesday 7 June. For more information on how to apply for free tickets visit the festival website.
• Edible Avenue SW8 – The Edible Bus Stop is working with Vinci St Modwen and New Covent Garden Market to Transform Thessaly Road into an Edible Avenue of herbs, flowers and plants with communal seating available throughout the festival. Visiting the site is free and open throughout the festival. See here for more information.
• Sky Pool at Embassy Gardens – The engineers and architects behind Ballymore Group’s Embassy Gardens and the Sky Pool are giving two talks about the project in the company’s marketing suite in Nine Elms Lane. The talks take place between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Wednesday 8 June. For more information visit the website.
• Talk and walking tour of Nine Elms Park with Huw Morgan – Ballymore Group is hosting a walking tour of the new New York- inspired Nine Elms Park site led by the embassy Gardens section landscape architect. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. The tour takes place between 3pm and 4pm on Thursday 16 June. See here for more information.
• Vauxhall City Farm: Architecture, partnership and animals: building new communities – St James, Vauxhall City Farm and Lambeth Council have teamed up to overhaul facilities at the farm and build eight new family homes on the site. Members of the public can join the St James development team for a walking tour from 10am until 11.30am on Thursday 23 June. All are welcome. More information here.
• New Spring Gardens by Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership – Artist Rachael Champion was commissioned to create the New Spring Gardens installation, in Arch 147 in Newport Street, by the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership with the support of the Vauxhall One Business Improvement District. The artwork will be open to the public on Mondays to Sundays from 10am until 5pm from Saturday 21 May until Sunday 12 June. More information here.
• Boat tour of the Thames Tideway Project – A tour of 12 construction sites along the Thames by the company tasked with building the capital’s new “super sewer”. Tideway’s boat tours, which will take place on Thursday 16 June from 9am until noon and from 5pm until 7.30pm, will offer views of Battersea Power Station from the river, Heathwall Pumping Station in Nine Elms, and Albert Embankment next to Vauxhall Bridge, after setting off from Westminster Pier. Places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. email Kate.Keegan@tideway.london to book a place.
• New Covent Garden a Fresh New Business and Residential Community – Architect BDP, developer VINCI St Modwen, and the Covent Garden Market Authority will give a presentation on how the country’s biggest fresh produce market is being redeveloped. The event is set to take place between 5.30pm and 7pm on Thursday 16 June at the flower market pedestrian entrance in Wandsworth Road. See here for more information and to book in advance.
• Kathrin Böhm & MyVillages presents Company (RCA) – The Royal College of Art is hosting a presentation of an ongoing project investigating the historic working holidays of East Londoners who helped out in harvesting crops in the countryside at its StudioRCA venue at 1 Riverfront Quay, in Nine Elms Lane from 6.30pm until 8.30pm on Thursday 2 June. See here for more information.
• The Residence Open Doors by Bellway Homes Thames Gateway – The chance to see the construction site of 500 new homes, hosted by Bellway Homes and speak to the architects about the project. All are welcome between 10am and 5pm on Saturday 25 June. See here for more information.
•If I Don’t Grow Lettuces I Can’t Write Poems – Artist Lucy Cash is set to present a talk and host a workshop linking StudioRCA at Riverlight and Doddington Roof Garden on the Doddington and Rollo Estate. A guided walk between these two spaces will form the bridge between the two parts of the event, which runs from 3pm until 6pm on Saturday 4 June. The event is free. There is no need to book in advance. See here for more information.
• A Tour of a Modern Icon –Caruso St John, the architects behind Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, are offering limited places on two guided tours of the gallery. The tour is set to take place on Monday 27 June at 3pm until 4pm and 4.30pm until 5.30pm. To reserve a place email henry@nineelmsonthesouthbank.com.
Pam Alexander MBE, the chair of the Nine Elms Vauxhall Cultural Steering Group and chair of Covent Garden Market Authority, said: “The Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership is delighted to be the major sponsor, alongside the Mayor, of this year’s London Festival of Architecture and to host a dozen or so events.
“Our aim is to demonstrate the enormous cultural, environmental and community value that this long-overlooked area will bring to London as the new neighbourhoods emerge.”
A full list of Nine Elms on the South Bank’s contribution to this year’s London Festival of Architecture is available here.
