Oh what people must have thought. A cluster of black-clad 20 somethings enveloping the barren urban square of the Broadgate estate in swaths of electric green fabric. Twisting, turning, jumping, laughing, moving, dancing, singing, shouting. Forms and people and colour and light; transforming an empty plot of privately owned, obsessively controlled land into an oasis of big-hearted urban theatre. And it didn’t always start out like this…
Kim and I visited the corporate behemoth of the Broadgate/Bishopsgate estate on a number of occasions- the first of which were slightly bizarre accidents. In a roundabout walking train from Colombia Road flower market to Spitalfields to the Barbican we marveled at an urban London space that was so devoid of human emotion, so bleak and lifeless that a mere piece of wayward rubbish sparked a philosophical reflection on the space-making capabilities of animate/semi-transient objects. The forthcoming skating rink gave a new meaning to the word bizarre, with lost looking children circling a lifeless plaza full of empty All Bar Ones. And yet the hideous neo-nineties chaos of liverpool street was only seconds away! And surely the throbbing, booze-filled, bagel munching masses of nearby brick lane could be filtering through this space and allow a bit of much needed breathing room? And so much space! So close! So empty!
And to be fair, the broadgate square isn’t always empty. The occasional, wayward picnicker (and confused londoner) makes the square a place for an impromptu urban experience and the lack of bins ensure an appropriately gritty (read:dirty) feel, the space is generally lifeless on a weekend day (writers note: I haven’t actually been there during the week; to be honest it might ruin it for me).
enter kimberly catherine (Architectural thinker/Bartlett student/Explorer club co-founder/green fabric stretcher extraordinaire)
The premise: activate broadgate square. The tools: friends and green fabric. Simple and effective, frankly. Even if the next few weeks work in collating the vast amount of information collected results in but a few images and a short film this project will more than succeed. We took space that, on a weekend, was nothing, and gave it a something.
So often in architecture I feel like you have to give a building a ‘pop’; a wow moment that imbues a deeper meaning into what you’ve built. Here, we’ve given broadgate square a fabulous (if fleeting) WOW moment. Guaranteed the people wandering through the square on that Sunday will not forget the chaos/excitement/general hilarity they witnessed. We’ve made a forgettable space something that will, for a while, stick. A space with a WOW, a bit of pizazz, an authentic urban experience to be remembered.
