RIBA has recently sent an open invitation to both its members and students at Chartered Practices to be involved in its “Constructing Communities” instalment, asking them to submit designs for the event, with entries open until the 6th of April this year.
Over the course of this summer, the invitation is primarily for architects, students and the association’s members to showcase the quality of their designs throughout the London area (specifically along Peckham Levels through to RIBA’s HQ). The opportunity is effectively the association’s response to the widely regarded London Festival of Architecture theme of “community”, with RIBA contributing by showcasing projects capable of laying out the way in which structural architecture, both for short and long-term use, may be able to support more engagement from communities on varying levels.
Ideas which architecture professionals may be looking to consider might target a number of key “community” concepts such as modern arrangements for residential property, the layout of combined working and habiting ideas, mobile enterprises, or even simple (and important) areas of any town or city – spaces for general public usage, activities and general community life. Of these ideas, RIBA will be assessing those submitted to pinpoint original projects capable of showcasing innovation on a technical level, as well as those capable of creating changes in the way that society and specific communities interact through architecture.
In total, three winners will then be offered the opportunity to develop their idea on a one-to-one scale to then be installed at the RIBA HQ, with the goal to then being presented across RIBA. This is also then to be shown alongside the summer exhibition which will be in the Architecture Gallery, which is set to open on May 18th. To assist with the development of the scaled models of their designs, the construction of the structures will be undertaken by both the winning entrants as well as the RIBA Young People’s Forum.
