The People’s Pavilion 2021
Project
The People’s Pavilion 2021
Client
Beyond the Box Initiative
Location
East London
Team
Poor Collective, Re-fabricate, Simple Works, Urban Symbiotics, Bareera Borhan, Shirin Naveed, Chun-Li Reid, Fourth Monkey Actor Training Company, Grey Lemon, Meenesha Kellay, Unscene Architecture, The Plug YIA, Ike Obanye. Team Reverie
Awards
Thornton Education Trust - Winner
Structure Awards 2023 - Shortlisted
In 2017 our Founding Director accompanied a group of young aspiring designers from across London to visit Diébédo Francis Kéré’s Serpentine Pavilion in West London. Upon leaving the Pavilion inspired, the young people raised the question, ‘Where are the spaces crafted by young Londoners? What opportunities do we have to design and shape the spaces in our own City?’
It was this questioning that saw us embark upon a two-year venture, obtaining permission to build on public land, commissioning young East Londoners to carry out initial research, establishing a multi-disciplinary team that represented the diverse talent of London, fundraising and experimenting with ways to integrate equity into the design process. Our team set about on a mission to explore a world co-designed with young people, thus the People’s Pavilion was born.
The People’s Pavilion became an award winning project, receiving the 2021 Inspire Future Generations Award from the Thornton Education Trust, which was awarded during an evening at the Architectural Association and was shortlisted for a Structure Award in 2023.
People’s Pavilion Film
Watch our People's Pavilion film to explore the project, celebrating the winning team's design, the collaborative build, and the vibrant cultural festival, all designed, built and produced by young East London.
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Photographs by © Luke O'Donovan
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© Luke O'Donovan
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The Winning Team
Team Reverie, whose vision for the People’s Pavilion was realised in 2021, included Shahriyar Ahmed (18), Samira Elbahja (17), and Dellilah Jamal (17) with their design, ‘The Reverie’. The winning team was awarded a £2,000 prize for their design which took inspiration from the surrounding natural environment.
The Research
The inaugural People’s Pavilion tested a bold new approach to co-design. We began by commissioning a team of young East Londoners as creative researchers, each were given a brief to discover what it means for young people to take up space in their city, exploring what access young Londoners have to culture, and what barriers they face when trying to access cultural activities. The researcher’s findings were captured in a series of short films, podcasts, surveys, street interviews, and cultural asset maps. We used the insights from the research to inform our design brief and to design our Cultural Producer Masterclass Series.
The Competition
In the summer of 2020, we launched the People’s Pavilion design competition to discover the next generation of placemakers, flipping the script on who gets to design and curate cultural spaces. This initiative invited young people from across East London to conceptualise designs for London’s first space designed and curated solely by youth—a pavilion to be constructed on London’s Here East Campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
This multidisciplinary, collaborative project encouraged young participants to partner with professionals from the built environment and creative arts industries. Together, they designed and built a temporary pavilion and produced a 10-day festival curated by a team of young cultural producers we employed.
The Exhibition
The final pavilion designs and models created by the nine shortlisted teams were showcased at an exhibition at Here East, curated by POOR Collective as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Visitors were invited to vote for the design they wanted to see brought to life. During the 3-week exhibition, 1,300 votes were cast by the public
Cultural Festival
Running in parallel with the design competition was our Young Cultural Producers Programme. Collaborating with a team of ten cultural producers from across East London, we co-designed a vibrant 10-day festival hosted at The People’s Pavilion.
Cultural Partners
The festival featured an incredible array of cultural and creative partners, including the V&A Museum and artist Brendan Barry, who showcased our Lund Point photographic exhibition. Live performances by Poetic Unity, immersive DJ sets by Space Black with projected archival images from the Black Cultural Archives, and workshops with the Royal Drawing School enriched the event. Local East London group You Are Capoeira brought dynamic demonstrations, while Vogue workshops led by tutor Tony Tran offered exciting new skills.
Music from DJ Mark-Ashley Dupé and activities by House of Henna and wellbeing facilitator YSM8 added to the festival's diverse offerings. Photography workshops with Brunel Johnson, performances from Sunny Steel Band, and panel talks with Resolve Collective, Urban Symbiotics, and POoR Collective provided further engagement and learning opportunities.
Queer East
Our LGBT inclusive day featured special guests such as Lady Phyll, Founder of UK Black Pride, legendary model and activist Winn Austin, artist BamBam, Stonewall Housing advocate Joshua Asare, and a special screening of the short film "There's Always a Black Issue Dear." This event celebrated diversity and fostered inclusivity within the community.
