lawrence lek + onur ozkaya + jesse randzio: 3013 installation

view of installation from above (landscape)

created by summer students at the architectural association school of architecture in london, ‘3013 installation‘ was based on a simple premise: in a thousand years, london will be saturated. constrained by the green belt around it and freed from restrictions on building skyscrapers, the city will grow inwards and upwards.

within this scenario of extreme density, students at this AA summer school unit led by artist lawrence lek, industrial designer onur ozkaya, and architect jesse randzio imagined how public space could evolve and adapt to smaller, vertical sites.

the team developed a sequence of three skins to connect the school’s upper terrace and lower courtyard. the surfaces were formed from pairs of twisted plywood strips cut from salvaged exhibition panels, which are joined together at their edges to form flexible skins tailored to the site. the upper skins were suspended from above, lightly touching the existing brick walls for support; the fabric-like behaviour of the surfaces allowed their final form to be determined by how they rest naturally under gravity.

this installation revealed the hidden relationships between different levels of the building, creating temporary shelters and flexible gathering points that address how the city might be occupied today and in the future.

students: agni kadi, ehsan ehsaei, frances liu, galo carbajo garcia, hande oney, harsh vernaya, i ching chu, joaquin del rio, julia kubisty, leonardo olavarrieta, marina olivi, masayo velasco, paco alonso, pedro domingues, summer lin, tess zhang.

frontal, courtyard-level view