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.