A Room for London
A major collaboration between Living Architecture and Artangel
See www.aroomforlondon.co.uk for projects and updates from the Room
Photograph by David Kohn
Throughout 2012, one night of every month has been reserved for winners of the Ideas for London competition organised in association with the Evening Standard. For more information and to enter please click here
There can be few places to stay a night in London quite as unusual, poetic and life-enhancing as A Room for London: a 'boat' perched, as if by retreating floodwaters, on the very edge of the Queen Elizabeth hall at the Southbank Centre.
The one-bedroom installation, built by Living Architecture and designed by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with the artist Fiona Banner, will stay on top of the roof throughout 2012. It will provide guests with a place of refuge and reflection amidst the flow of traffic at this iconic location in the capital. The lower and upper decks offer extraordinary views, by day and night, of a London panorama that stretches from Big Ben to St Paul's cathedral.
An intimate space in a cultural quarter with a sweeping view of one of the world's great cities, A Room for London is more than a hotel room: it's an observatory, a retreat and a studio, whose design was inspired by the Roi des Belges, the boat that Joseph Conrad navigated up the River Congo in the late nineteenth century, before writing Heart of Darkness. There is a deck, a crow's nest and a cabinet of visual curios - and a centerpiece bed which slides on rails to make the most of the views over London. Before departure, guests will be invited to fill in a logbook in the 'bridge' of the boat, detailing what they have experienced during their stay, out of the window as much as within themselves. An octagonal library with a carefully curated selection of books and twin desks looking out across the river enables visitors to use the Room as a remarkable studio space.
To make use of this opportunity for imaginative reflection, Artangel has invited a range of writers, musicians and artists to stay in A Room for London, using their time there to create new works or performances. Each month a different writer will check into the Room and spend several days writing a new work, a reading of which will be recorded in the octagonal library and broadcast as one of twelve installments of A London Address. A different musician will stay in the space every month, ending their residency with a Sounds from a Room live performance that will be streamed to international audiences over the web. And at different moments through the year, various artists will spend time in the space with the simple instruction that they should use the opportunity to imagine something new that can be shared - in an echo of the golden age of nautical broadcasting - by way of the digital space.
Meanwhile, Ideas for London, a competition in association with the Evening Standard, looks to discover Londoners’ most remarkable ideas for their city. By proposing ideas, citizens of the capital can win a night in A Room for London. A number of creative and influential people will come on board to nurture the ideas, one to one and over dinner, before the winner ‘sleeps on it’.
This is contemporary architecture at its most playful, beguiling and thought-provoking. In future years, expect that the boat will resume its journey and find itself perched in other vital parts of the capital.
A Room for London is a collaboration between Living Architecture and Artangel, in association with Southbank Centre and the London 2012 Festival.
A Room for London is part of the London 2012 Festival – as the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad this UK-wide festival will feature leading artists from around the world from 21 June – 9 September 2012.
A Room for London is commissioned by Living Architecture and Artangel in association with Southbank Centre and the London 2012 Festival, with the generous support of the Artangel International Circle, the Special Angels and the Company of Angels.
Funders and Collaborators
