Southbank Centre Summer Festivals
Southbank Centre Summer Festivals
Festival of Britain
We worked as part of the team at Southbank Centre that conceived the concept, look, feel and design of Southbank Centre’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.
With particular expertise in the creation of narrative experiences and the ability to work across and with different disciplines we moved on to design the ‘beacons’ and a ‘boundary’ around the site in collaboration with designer Michael Marriott and the in-house graphics team.
We wanted to create a language that felt accessible, familiar and welcoming to the visitor that created a narrative for them to follow as they explored the 21 acre site.
We chose air conditioning ductwork to create beacons around the site, using an object not usually found in a public space as a way of ensuring the beacons stood out in the large site.
This image shows a 6 metre high beacon made from air conditioning ductwork with a graphic treatment. The beacons acted as wayfinding along with yellow fabric wrapping.
We used fabric wraps with a carefully chosen collection of words evoking ‘Britishness’. This project continues an exploration into how we can activate and augment public space with ‘soft architecture’ to bring out the depth, heritage and narrative that often already exists.
LYN Atelier are generous collaborators working equally well with the team here, with other artists and designers and with a wide range of others from chief executives to plumbers, architects, designs students and volunteers from many walks of life. Their work here has been to exceptionally tight budgets and time lines which often shift but they have always delivered stunning and interesting work which somehow exceeds expectations. Their work with used materials has allowed him to be both sustainable and economically successful here at Southbank Centre.
LYN have a strong conceptual approach to design with a vision which Southbank Centre has grown to trust and enjoy. Their playfulness also chimes well with our own vision for the site and for the way we hope visitors will engage with us.
Shan Maclennan, Deputy Artistic Director, Southbank Centre
Festival of the World
For the second year we worked with the in house team at Southbank Centre to imagine their summer festival; The Festival of the World. As part of the festival we designed a site wide look and feel based on packing crates. Conceived as having been washed up on the banks of the river Thames the packing crates- transformed Southbank Centre into a bustling port city. They told stories from projects around the world that celebrate how communities have been changed by art and were used as way finding and marketing points.
Inspired by the different shapes and sizes seen in a port we created a landscape of crates along the Thames which visitors could explore, go inside, through and under.
Taller structures made from timber and concrete were used as way finders for visitors around the site, as seating and to display large scale graphics.
