Year: 2012-2012
Client: Austrian Embassy, London
Project Status: Unbuilt
In the spirit of the Olympic Games, the London Festival of Architecture has selected the theme of ‘The Playful City’ for their 2012 festival. The ACF London is pleased to contribute with the exhibtion Urban Sports Pockets.
In the midst of the two capital cities’ imposing architectural heritage are gaps, incidental places and spaces amongst the ‘feet’ of buildings where inhabitants congregate to play impromptu sports such as parkour, bike polo, urban golf, basketball, and skateboarding.
These places of activity facilitate personal expression, collective interaction and colour the city’s urban realm. These spaces have been named as Urban Sport Pockets (USPs). From the skateboarding vaults under the Queen Elizabeth Hall of London’s Southbank Centre to the parkour trails through Vienna’s Karlsplatz, sport has been and always will be linked to the urban realm.
Anglo-Austrian Architect Nick Baker and Photographer Hamish Park, have compiled this intriguing exhibition exploring London and Vienna’s USPs, investigating their relationship with the surrounding architecture, their national identity and value as incubators of a city’s sporting talent.
This project is part of the British Councils’s International Architecture and Design Showcase 2012 (21 June - 23 September), a global gathering of cultural projects that investigate architecture and design from across the world, presented for the London 2012 Festival.
For further information visit www.lfa2012.org