Visions of the future in the city

The London Festival of Architecture provides the perfect opportunity to plan your career as an architect.

Mention the London Festival of Architecture and many people still think back to Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s sheep-herding stunt across the Millennium Bridge in2006. But this year’s festival has come a long way since then, with over 500 events taking place in the capital across five “hubs”. The city is packed with people discussing, finding out about, looking at, celebrating and criticising architecture.

Indeed,while there is no single headline-grabbing event this time (which some have criticised as making the festival too unfocused) there is no shortage of exciting happenings.

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You can check out giant flower-shaped pavilions and portable swimming pools, dine on architectural jelly and breakfast with Janet Street-Porter. As architecture writer Dan Stewart says, “Everyone who ever picked up a scale rule within the capital’s borders is doing something at this festival.”

Among the most attention- grabbing of all the events is the Dark Waters exhibition. River traffic was once central to the life of London, butasthecity grew ever further from the Thames, human activity has all but lefttheriverandits vitalenergy has been dissipated to the extent that many modernLondoners have no contact with the waterway. Dark Waters is about rebuilding this relationship and the nature of the connections it forges. “Six piers along the Thameshave been selected for audio-visual installations that connect Londoners with the Thames, allowing people to experience the waters on an emotional and immersive level,” explains Miranda Housden, head of RIBA London.

Housden believes it is a particularly exciting time architecturally in London. “There is so much change going on, so many opportunities and the festival is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate this,” she says, adding that the festival also provides the ideal forum in which to explore the current challenges facing architects in the capital.

Dark Waters, she says, is aprime example, with many London architects trying to find ways to improve access tothe Thames and enhance its environment. For Justin Bere, this is a particular passion and his architectural practice is working on a riverside walk strategy. “We’ve produced a master plan for improvements on the north bank of the Thames along thecity boundary, which we are now implementing bit by bit,” he says. “In the next few months,we’ll be introducing a new artistic staircase at London Bridge, helping to bring people down to the river to appreciate it, and a footbridge under Cannon Bridge too.”

Meanwhile, Tom Holbrook, director of 5th Studio who is also involved in Dark Waters, is currently involved in establishing a long-term design framework for Lee Valley Regional Park. “We’ve been putting together the overall design framework for this big idea of a park that will come together over a long period of time. It’s a space thatwe feel should evolve. It’s been a really exciting piece of work because it’s about helping to stop the river be invisible and to refocus everyone’s attention on it, manipulatingitintoareally good piece of public space.”

The biggest – and rather less appealing – challenge currently facing London architects, however, is the credit crunch. “There is no doubtthat architects are all preparing for having less work, but the really good ones will survive,” insists Housden. “After all, it’s not the first time the capital has had to respond to an economic downturn. Among the repercussions that RIBA believes will ensue are smaller practices teaming up with bigger ones; more London architects working abroad (see page X for more on these opportunities); and a fall in the number of landmark towers. “Landmark towers are going to feel the pinch because they’re so expensive to build and the risk of not filling the office space is too great,” says Jack Pringle, a former RIBA president. But it’s not all doom and gloom, he adds.

“The Shard is still going ahead and it’s going to be fabulous for London.” Indeed, the Shard London Bridge, also known as the London Bridge Tower, is expected to redefine London’s skyline, become a symbol of the capital and the highlight of Renzo Piano’s career.

Pringle points to a further significant architectural challenge – the Olympics site. “This is a real concern because it’s clearly been quite poorly conceived, with budgets not working out properly,” he says. “A particular mistake that’s been made in an attempt to keep costs down is that the project has been contractor-led, rather than architect-led.

As a result, there is a danger that the quality of architecture, which should be a showcase for London, might be compromised." The only solution, believes Pringle, is for the new mayor to take the lid off the secrecy around costs, as well as refocus on architectural quality.

“I think we have to be determined to do a really good job because this is the first ever Olympics where people have tried to make it one where the buildings have an onward life and some real use to the community.”

For Jane Duncan, director of her own architectural practice that works in and around London, the biggest challenge of the last few years has been creating eco-friendly housing. “This isn’t just a small change, but a step change in the whole way we talk to our clients and look at sites. The green agenda didn’t even exist before, yet now it’s the first thing I talkto clients about. If someone wants a six-bedroom house, for instance, I’ll be saying, ‘OK, but can we make it as sustainable as possible?’”

In fact, it’s often the clients themselves who brings up the sustainability factor. “There is certainly eco-chic about,” explains Duncan. “Sometimes, I think there’s even a bit of a Keeping Up With the Joneses philosophy – if they have a heat pump, we want one. But more than that, why would you not want a house that’s lovely and warm and full of sunlight, but low in energy and doesn’t cost much to run?”

Duncan says the green agenda has made her work more interesting, although it is “hugely time consuming and expensive”. “There is a lot of training involved and extra work, so it is expensive all round, but it’s incredibly stimulating,” she adds.

Justin Bere, whose famous Focus House has won numerous awards, agrees. Some years ago, when he found a site on which to build his own house, he decided to incorporate everything he’d read and learned around energy and ecology and bring it altogether in one building. “Along the way, I’ve gained all sorts of interest from other people and now we are attracting clients who come to us specifically because they want a combination of really good design and environmental priorities.

Even those that don’t are increasingly receptive to ideas. In the past, if I made a suggestion like bringing cool air from Tower Bridge into the ticket office, I’d have been thought off as being completely off kilter, but now I’m taken seriously. So for me, it’s an incredibly rewarding time to be working in London. Like many architects in the capital, Bere refuses to work for what he calls “cheap and greedy developers.”

“For us, architecture is about making a difference and energy conservation is a huge part of that. In my own house, my prototype, there are four types of roof alone, ranging from wild flower meadows to hawthorn thickets to hazel coppice and after just four months they are covered with bumble bees and insects and a wide variety of birds. It just shows what can be done in a matter of months to rebuild ecology.”

Having qualified three years ago, Tony Broomhead, director at Amenity Space in Hackney, is equally passionate about making an ethical standpoint and like many architects, he believes the London Festival of Architecture can help to make this an increasing reality.