Published on
May 18, 2016
Londoners are being invited to glimpse a preview of the architectural gems being built in one of the capital’s most exciting new quarters.
A series of guided tours, exhibitions and panel discussions are being hosted in venues across the Nine Elms on the South Bank regeneration area as part of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, which is set to run throughout June.
The former light industrial site will feature some of London’s most innovative new buildings and will be sown together by an ambitious area-wide placemaking and cultural development strategy.
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.
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: Supporting Communities Through Multi-sector Partnership – 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 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. Email kate.keegan@tideway.london to book a place on one of the tours, which run between 9.30am until noon and from 5pm until 7.30pm.
• 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 to book a place and 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. See here for more information and to book in advance.
• Kathrin Böhm & MyVillages presents Company – 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 6 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.
London’s leading architectural, cultural and academic institutions and practising architects, designers, curators and community groups are all taking part in this year’s festival, which has the theme of “community”.
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.”
More information about Nine Elms on the South Bank’s contribution to this year’s London Festival of Architecture is available here.
-Ends –
Notes to editors:
For further information contact Henry Ellis at henry@nineelmslondon.com
Eight years of major investment at Nine Elms on the South Bank are paying off and the area is becoming a vibrant new central London quarter with hundreds of residents and businesses.
The area’s key attractions will included a revived Battersea Power Station, the new US and Dutch embassies, a new centre for London’s foodies at New Covent Garden Market, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the new Nine Elms Park and a new stretch of Thames Riverside Walk lined with cafes, bars, shops and galleries.
The district is being shaped by world leading architects, developers and planners to create a truly mixed-use district with real city centre vitality.
A district-wide cultural strategy is hard-wiring cultural uses and spaces through each new development to ensure the area reaches its full potential as a new centre for arts and creativity on the South Bank.
Two new Tube stations are being built, alongside new schools, around 4,000 affordable homes, health centres, high-speed data networks, a second riverbus pier and a new cycling and pedestrian network.
The regeneration programme is privately funded and does not benefit from taxpayer funding.
Find out more at www.nineelmslondon.com