driftwood

this is what’s left of the annu­al prac­ti­cal review of stu­dent work held at the AA — the archi­tec­tur­al asso­ci­a­tion — or, more pre­cise­ly, held out­side the organ­i­sa­tion’s head­quar­ters in bed­ford square each sum­mer. this strik­ing piece, which is now show­ing dis­tinct signs of envi­ron­men­tal attri­tion, can still be seen, and stands stark­ly flu­id and organ­ic against the sober neo-clas­si­cal con­fines of the square’s geor­gian architecture.

a delight­ful sur­prise to come across this odd­i­ty on a rainy sep­tem­ber after­noon in blooms­bury. infor­ma­tion from the archi­tec­tur­al asso­ci­a­tion press release below:

Drift­wood was designed by con­cept design­er Dane­cia Sibin­go a 3rd year stu­dent, and a team that includes Lyn Hayek, Yoo­jin Kim, and Taey­oung Lee. It is nei­ther art nor archi­tec­ture, sci­ence nor eco­log­i­cal adven­ture, but a sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion and pro­to­type that defies clas­si­fi­ca­tion. It embraces inven­tion, exper­i­men­ta­tion, new mate­ri­als and aes­thet­ic intel­li­gence. The pavil­ion was select­ed by a pan­el of sev­en emi­nent judges from the worlds of archi­tec­ture, engi­neer­ing, design, media and ecol­o­gy. It pro­vides a thought­ful, pro­vok­ing reminder of the UK’s inex­tri­ca­ble link to the sea — its undu­lat­ing form cre­at­ed by the motion of the water, car­ried by waves and com­ing to rest in busy cen­tral London