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The festival has been a part of human life since antiquity. Reflecting the social and economic changes in our world, festivals consolidate social groups of all sizes from small (the family unit) to large (tribes and towns). They provide a temporal microcosm from which our relationships – between ourselves and with the spaces we inhabit – become distilled, intensified and amplified.
Recognising the intangible cultural heritage, practices, representations, knowledge and skills, as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated herewith, this year UG9 considered the festival as a transgressor of everyday routine. It is a departure from the ordinary that allows for requestioning of one’s individual and collective values.
In term one UG9 explored the festival theme through the design of an intervention on the site of the historic Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens; in doing so they considered the age of commercialised leisure and dedicated entertainment spaces and venues. Following the unit’s field trip to Berlin in term two, the festival theme was reconsidered alongside the German city which has cultivated individual expression yet also maintained a collective contribution to culture and society. Our architecture navigates the complex spatial conditions of the city and the opportunities that these relationships bring.
Drawing upon the unit’s continuing interest in ecology and technology, our architectural proposals address concerns around the climate crisis, urban development, culture and legacy through inventiveness and creativity, and by providing an active stimulus for the imagination.
Berlin, Germany