Over the festival’s three days, we celebrated by building an installation, exhibiting our past and present work, and hosting a gathering on Wednesday evening.
THIRTY Installation
Located outside our London studio, THIRTY is an intriguing and visually changing installation that heralds our thirty years. Subtle yet elegant, layered, pragmatic and ever reaching skywards, it is a wonderful representation of the collaborative working relationships that are fundamental to our work. THIRTY is the result of an internal design competition that inspired ten creative responses. Judges Rachel Haugh, Will Knight (CDW Show Director) and Helen Parton (OnOffice Magazine Editor) were impressed by the range of ideas, approaches and media across the submissions, all varied yet united by their ambition, positivity, aspiration and innovation.
The judges chose the winning entry by Anthony Campbell for its clear celebratory response, comprising an appealing sculptural form, powerful graphic and a symbolic way of reflecting our endeavor across many strands, projects, years and contributors. We are grateful to Martifer Metallic Constructions, who we are working with at Battersea Power Station’s Circus West Village, as they realised the proposal for us by supplying all the materials, constructing it and then installing it on site. Fabricated from steel plate and hollow sections in Portugal in two weeks, Martifer painted the installation and stencilled the logos on to it. They transported in the installation in two sections, requiring only minimal work on site.
Finally, iGuzzini kindly supplied a light fitting for added atmosphere at night, and our in-house model makers Kristin Mishra and Kaia Williams produced the sponsor labels.
THIRTY Exhibition
Thanks to sponsors Focchi, who we worked with at Dollar Bay and are now working with on Owen Street and Prater, who we are working with at Battersea Power Station’s Circus West Village and One Blackfriars, we were able to stage an exhibition to festival goers. We displayed all THIRTY competition entries, previously unseen photos from our early days and completed project models (including One Blackfriars, Dollar Bay, Queens Park Place and Library Walk) and concept development models. Congratulations to Bart Radecki who won a bottle of Champagne in our visitor competition.
THIRTY Celebration
To thank all those that have been involved in our journey so far, we hosted an evening party at our London studio. Our festive spirits were encouraged by a delicious BBQ put on by The London Hog Roast Company, and birthday cupcakes by our in-house baker Sarah Matheou. Rachel Haugh shared a few words about turning 30 in the professional sense, reminding us that it is only through the positive contributions of those we’ve worked with, that we’ve been able to achieve so much.