Architecture Foundation (AF) and Art House Foundation have launched annual Antepavilion competition to design and build an experimental rooftop structure for a revolving series of installations by the Regent’s canal in Haggerston. The Antepavilion is a new initiative to develop and display experimental city rooftop structures. 

The project, set up by Art House Foundation and competition sponsor, Shiva Ltd with help from Architecture Foundation, will offer emerging architects, makers and artists an opportunity to create new work within a complex and unique urban environment at Columbia and Brunswick Wharf in the London borough of Hackney.

Brief

Architects, artists and designers are asked to propose work that engages with ideas around:

Innovative and alternative ways of living within the city, proposing new ways for urban dwelling; an idea that could resonate with existing concepts around micro dwelling. An engagement with issues of sustainability and in particular the use of recycled and recyclable materials.

The winning design will receive sponsorship in the form of a free issue materials, craftsmen and a small cash prize. It is intended that within this framework the winning design team will be engaged directly with the construction process. The installation will remain on display for up to two years and should be fast build, easily disassembled, light-weight and can be erected within a 40 sq m rooftop footprint.

Considerable importance will be attached to the aesthetic contribution that structures can make to a highly visible, eclectic, experimental urban environment. As an external work it can respond to the complex urban condition of the Columbia and Brunswick Wharf, a unique site that sits adjacent to the Regents Canal in Hackney.

The purpose of the project is to explore and encourage the range and complexity of work currently being produced across the disciplines of architecture design and fine art and particularly to support and promote the work and ideas of less established architects, emerging practices, artists or craftsmen.

Process and selection

Entries will be considered by a cross-disciplinary jury including artists and architects.

Applicants are invited to review the site information and attend one of three open days on the 10am – 1pm, 30 January and 2pm – 5pm, 6 February. The rooftop and its existing structures can also be seen from various surrounding roads and the canal.

The deadline for entries will be 31 March 2017 at midnight. Three to five of the entries will be selected by the panel for further development to fund a final presentation for selection of a winner with the assistance of a small bursary of £3,000 divided equally between the short listed applicants.

The short-listed entries will be displayed in the Art House Foundation Gallery space at Columbia Wharf (Hoxton Docks) for an open evening and announcement of the winner of the commission. The creator of the selected structure will receive a commission worth £10,000 in cash together with the materials and construction labour assistance up to a further £15,000. 

He or she will then be invited to work with the workshops, machinery and craftsmen on site at Columbia Wharf for up to a month leading to the completion and installation of the finished structure on the chosen rooftop by 1 August 2017. Thereafter the structure will be on display to visitors for a number of summer functions and for the annual Open House weekend.

Top image courtesy of The Architecture Foundation

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