ARCHITECTURE OSA: URBAN OASIS
The Arena
Wednesday 20 July [Wed 20/07 till Tue 26/07 from 9am - 9pm]
Broadgate Circle, EC2 Tube: Liverpool St.
FREE
The Office for Subversive Architecture (the name being a take on Rem Koolhaas'
Office for Metropolitan Architecture) will be continuing their latest form of
agitprop with another urban intervention, the Hoegaarden Urban Oasis -- although
with such an emphasis on its sponsor the independent agenda of OSA seems slightly
muddied. The work is an interactive outdoor installation that challenges the
relationship between urban and natural environments and looks at the effect
this manipulation of space has on city dwellers. The objective is to create
a piece that sets out to make people re-evaluate their urban environment by
confronting them with strong natural elements. This urban experience will be
open to visitors over the course of one week to interact with and enjoy. The
installation will take the form of a natural pub that grows out of a turf carpet.
All the top surfaces, including the Hoegaarden bar, will be covered in grass
and some of the tables and chairs will be at different stages of growth. Signs
around the installation will read "keep on the grass" and the jukebox
will be playing sounds from nature as opposed to the latest chart music. A visit
to the installation could be just the tonic for Liverpool Street's office workers
sealed in their air conditioned environments, washed down with a glass of Hoegaarden.
(Runs till 26/07.)
NB: On Thu 21/07 and Fri 22/07 evenings (5:30 - 7:30pm) stop by and sample
free Hoegaarden and then get a free rub down by one of the onsite massage therapists!
A recent project called I-N-T-A-C-T saw OSA transform a redundant railway signal
box in London's East End to look like a suburban family home.