Music and architecture brings Exhibition Road to the centre of London’s cultural life

Annual Music Day and London Festival of Architecture come to South Kensington - News

By Colin Smith and Naomi Weston

World music and architectural innovation merged into a kaleidoscope of sights and sounds to make South Kensington the focus of London’s cultural life on Saturday (21 June 2008).

The annual Music Day and the London Festival of Architecture combined for the first time this year. It drew visitors to Imperial College London’s doorstep where they listened to world music and explored cutting edge architectural installations along Exhibition Road which was closed to traffic for the day.

Highlights from the festival included more than 150 musical performances and 30 architectural structures on display. A range of events, exhibitions, interactive workshops, talks and tours were also held.

 

Four hundred artists took part in Music Day across 20 stages, bringing a variety of world music to South Kensington. Performances at the free festival included the Imperial College Gospel Choir, the College Sinfonietta and the Imperial College Wind Band, which all played outside the College’s main entrance.

Lucy Smith from the Imperial College Wind Band said they very much enjoyed playing in the festival.

“We chose to play a couple of light-hearted pieces to entertain the public and we were pleased that people stopped to listen to us play and showed their appreciation with rounds of applause.”

One of the architectural installations - The Fresh Flower Pavilion

She said it was also interesting to hear the other music and see the architectural installations on display along Exhibition Road.

To celebrate the diversity of the area a wide range of workshops accompanied the performances, including Bollywood, Samba and Ceilidh dance workshops and Indian and Chinese percussion sessions.

A range of companies including 6a Architects and Paticas Architecture, designed and erected a diverse range of temporary structures along Exhibition Road.

 

These aimed to show how contemporary architects create and experiment with new ideas and structures. Large installations and smaller sculptures lined the street. One sculpture was built from recycled plastic. Others were created from cardboard boxes whilst the roof of another large installation was designed to resemble flower petals.

Imperial first year undergraduates Edward O’Hare and Caroline Bailey, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, helped out at one the pavilions which was built in front of the College.

Musicians playing at the festival

The ten metre tall structure, designed by architecture firm Foster and Partners, resembled an upside down champagne flute which was wrapped in diamond shaped pieces of fabric.

Edward and Caroline were part of a team which invited visitors to paint designs on the pavilion before it was erected at noon. When the pavilion was in place they then took visitors on tours inside it. Edward said:

“This exhibition provided an opportunity to show what happens when architecture and engineering come together to create something that is beautiful and amazing.”

Visitors were also invited to view plans by the architectural firm Dixon Jones for the £35 million redevelopment of Exhibition Road, which will see it transformed from a major traffic route into a pedestrianised streetscape.