Friend of Habitables photographer Jim Stephenson has been kind enough to share with us these exclusive shots he took down at the Festival of Britain 2011 Band Stand. If you find yourself in London between now and September, I urge you to head on down to Southbank and visit this superb student project.

Undertaken with the supervisory assistance of RIBA London, 5 Part I students from a range of Universities across the UK, along with a couple of Part II’s undertook a live brief to create a performance space that could be used during the Festival of Britain. The structure was commissioned by the Southbank Centre, and the students were given the task of creating something that would stand as an iconic piece of architecture for the duration of the event.

At the start of 2011 Part I students Mark Warren, Digory Macfarlane, and Tim Coles joined Part II students Alex Scott-Whitby, Carla Smyth, Jing Lu and Huw Trevorrow to embark on the opportunity of designing a bandstand to host live music and performances throughout the summer period, with students Derek Opara and James Le Ball joining the team to help with the build. Collectively the students are representative of Brighton, Cardiff, London Metropolitan and Manchester Universities.

The students worked out of the the RIBA London’s headquarters for 2 months, and had direct control and input over every stage of the project from initial ideas, concept development and production of information, to manufacturer research and liaison, design implementation and on-site installation and construction.

‘Having the opportunity to see a public project through from inception to completion, as Part I students, has been such a unique, valued and fun experience I thought not possible in the professions current climate’ – Digory Macfarlane

The visual influence of the traditional British Maypole is obvious, and the structure combines this with the Band Stand to create a sculptural performance space.

The canopy of the bandstand consists of a PVC mesh that is tensioned and attached to a steel ring using the design principals of a trampoline. To introduce the maypole element of the design, a giant column rises from the stage, running past an oculus in the canopy to reach its overall eight of 8m. To add to the playful and iconic nature of the design, coloured webbing straps splay outward to the canopy’s edge, twisting and crossing each other as they pull in to meet the centre of the stage. In doing this, the tensioned straps hold the canopy in place due to compression. The composition of the straps was designed with children in mind, allowing them to play safely whilst they pull, climb and run in and out of them.

Special thanks go out to – RIBA members Tamsie Thomson and Jing Lu, engineers Davies Maguire + Whitby, Roger Nelson and the Southbank Centre

[Jim Stephenson]

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