SPACE INVADERS 
Young British Architecture

23.02. – 24.03.2002

The British Council has chosen 15 of the United Kingdom’s most innovative architectural practices for its major international touring exhibition, Space Invaders, which launched at Experimenta 2001, the Lisbon design biennale in September 2001 and is continuing on its international tour: Tallinn, Estonia > Prague, Czech Republic > Berlin, Germany > Los Angeles, USA. It demonstrates the creative dynamism of an emerging generation of British trail blazers who are extending the concept of architecture: David Adjaye, atopia, Block, dECOi, de Rijke Marsh Morgan (dRMM), East, FAT, Foreign Office Architects (FOA), General Lighting and Power (GLP), as well as Klein Dytham Architects (KDa), muf, Piercy Conner, softroom, s333 and Urban Salon.

Co-curator Lucy Bullivant says: “Architects are not afraid to openly share ideas across the disciplines of architecture, art, and new technology, and interact directly with the public. These fifteen multi-skilled practices and studios represent a shift in international thinking about the public face of architecture. Increasingly, architects work on each aspect of the built environment, generating ideas about everything from furniture to the urban masterplan. Space Invaders communicates ideas about everyday culture right now, where architecture and life have formed a highly creative relationship.”

Space Invaders features a cross-section of international projects, many of them commissioned. Some schemes remain speculative. Highlights include: the acclaimed Elektra House in East London by David Adjaye; Yokohama International Port Terminal by Foreign Office Architects; art and architecture practice muf’s Hypocaust building for the display of Roman remains in St Albans, and new designs for affordable housing by Piercy Conner, the youngest practice in the exhibition.

Another focus of the exhibition are interactive projects that engage the public, for example Wonderwall, by KDa in Tokyo, and Aegis, a real time dyanamic surface for theatres and other cultural buildings, designed by the multi-disciplinary practice dECOi in Paris. 

The growing convergence of architecture, landscape and urbanism is demonstrated by the work of s333 (Amsterdam and London). Interdisciplinary art and architecture projects include FAT’s New Civic project for central London. 

The exhibition includes photographs, drawings, models, sketches, visualisations, CAD images and video clips depicting architectural projects in development. Each practice is represented by projects both built and under construction, speculative schemes, and a custom-made exhibit or proposal expressing its philosophy and way of working. The design of the exhibition, a series of individually developed free standing structures, highlights the diverse interests and personalities of the practices.

The exhibition is curated by Lucy Bullivant and Pedro Gadanho in association with the British Council’s Art, Architecture & Design Department. It is designed by Urban Salon, with graphic design by Bump. A documentary film, directed by Milk, with interviews by Lucy Bullivant, is a specially commissioned part of the exhibition. It incorporates a series of in-depth video interviews with the directors of each practice. Its purpose, as Lucy Bullivant explains, is ’to provide an exploratory journey into the architects’ worlds, and to make a tour of many of their recent projects, as well as the environments that have inspired their work’. The exhibition is also accompanied by a 150 page catalogue, published by the British Council’s Art, Architecture and Design Department, illustrating all the exhibited projects in full colour. The catalogue features essays by the curators, together with entries on the individual practices by Lucy Bullivant. Distributed by Cornerhouse, the catalogue will be available at the exhibition and from specialist arts bookshops.
 

Lucy Bullviant is an architectural critic, curator and cultural programme consultant. She writes regularly for Domus, Archis, World Architecture, Building Design, Ottagono, Bouw and indesign. Her many exhibitions include Kid size: the material world of childhood, for Vitra Design Museum (1997-2002), and The near and the far, fixed and in flux, the official British exhibition at the XIX Triennale di Milano (1996), for which she was commissioner and curator. 

Pedro Gadanho is an architect and teaches at the Faculty of Architecture in Porto. He is director and co-founder of CUC Centre for Urban Culture, Porto, and director of the architecture section of the Experimenta Biennial, Lisbon 2000. Gadanho has recently curated Post.Rotterdam: Architecture and City after the tabula rasa for Porto 2001.

VIDEO DIRECTOR:

Milk blurs the boundaries between design and advertising, creating solutions in different media which are custom-designed concepts generating a new story not an end point product. Elliott Chaffer of Milk has worked as a director and designer for MTV, Channel 4, E4 and Film 4, and makes his own documentary films on urban cultural themes. 

EXHIBITION DESIGNERS:

Urban Salon was established in 1995 by interior designer Diana Cochrane and architect Alex Mowat. They have carried out a number of built and speculative urban, architectural and design projects, specifically exhibitions and events (including Portable Architecture, for the RIBA, and Stealing Beauty, and Rem Koolhaas for the ICA); public buildings (such as the Skyscape cinema for The New Millennium Experience), residential buildings, and interiors (a house of  the future for Orange Communications). 

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS:

Bump was formed by Mike Watson and Jon Morgan in 1995, during their final year studying illustration at the Royal College of Art. Broadening their work to include creative communications with a humorous touch, their clients include Harvey Nichols, Knoll, the Crafts Council and the Jerwood Gallery, and exhibitions in Ultravision (the British Council) and Stealing Beauty (ICA).