Architecture alumnus wins annual Architecture Foundation competition with design for inflatable performance venue.
Date: 25 April 2018
Thomas Randall-Page, an alumnus of the Professional Diploma in Architecture (now Architecture RIBA 2 MArch) course at The Cass, and his partner Benedetta Rogers have won the £25,000 Architecture Foundation (AF) Antepavilion competition with a design for a floating inflatable performance venue.
Their 2018 Antepavilion, which will travel London’s waterways during the summer, is conceived as a two-level inflatable space with a high-pressure supporting structure and low-pressure canopy resting on a historic steel barge named Ouse. The design, which will be realised with the help of structural engineers, AKTii, allows the barge to deflate in order to fit through the many low bridges and tunnels which line London’s canal network then re-inflate creating a pop-up performance space.
Phineas Harper who chaired the jury said: “The jury was deeply impressed with the calibre and creativity of the finalists. Thomas Randall-Page and Benedetta Rogers’ winning design is exhilarating and joyful, drawing upon the work of Jeffrey Shaw and Ant Farm. The bold and experimental nature of the team’s proposed structure and the festive programme of events they envision along the length of the Regent’s Canal make it an exciting and worthy winner of the 2018 Antepavilion Commission.”
The Antepavilion is an initiative to develop and display experimental structures. The project, set up with support from Shiva Ltd and the Architecture Foundation, offers 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.
The jury comprised Mary Duggan of Mary Duggan Architects, Theo Molloy of PUP Architects, Russell Gray, founder Shiva Ltd, the design writer Emily King, and Beth Hughes, head of architecture at the RCA, and was chaired by Phineas Harper from the Architecture Foundation.
Read more about the winning project and the competition on the Architecture Foundation website.
