The Orbit Tower features in Open House (Ajb110/Dreamstime.com)
Open House London is back. Taking place this weekend from the 17 to 18 September and now in its 24th year, it will give the public free entry to 750 of the city’s best buildings, 140 of which are new to the annual programme.
Alongside old favourites such as The Gherkin, 10 Downing Street and the Cheesegrater will be new additions such as Anish Kapoor’s Orbit Tower; Here East, the new technology hub and business campus in Hackney Wick; and Second Home, a co-working office in Whitechapel that feels more like a nightclub than a workplace.
Rory Olcayto, director at Open House, offers a construction manager’s guide to the event.
From a construction manager’s point of view, from a technical or design standpoint, what are the most interesting new additions to the programme. What should people see?
I think it’s worth checking out the five Stirling Prize winning buildings we have in the programme this year: Peckham Library (2000); the Laban Centre (2003); the Gherkin (2004); the Maggie’s Centre (2009); and Burntwood School (2015). These are the buildings the architectural profession consider to be the best of the best. It might help construction managers to get into the heads of their architectural colleagues a little, if they can see the merits or otherwise in these award-winning buildings.
What do you think will be popular with the general public?
I’m thinking the Foreign & Commonwealth Office will be busy because Palmerston the cat has been tweeting (yes, seriously) that if you visit the building you might see him in action chasing mice. People visit buildings for all sorts of reasons, architectural aesthetics, being just one of them. Curiosity, celebrity, history – Open House is all of these things.
Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
What do you think the biggest surprise is this year?
I think the big surprise is the continuing and growing love of Brutalist architecture. So I expect to see queues outside buildings like Basil Spence’s Cutler’s Hall in the City of London. It’s a 70s number, first time in Open House, and designed by the guy who did Coventry Cathedral and Glasgow’s infamous Queen Elizabeth blocks, demolished in 1993, less than 30 years after it was built. It could be the last chance to see another Brutalist classic as well – Robin Hood Gardens – which is facing demolition.
Have any particular buildings been dropped, or proved unpopular?
We refresh the programme every year, turning over about a fifth of the programme annually. In 2016 there are 140 new buildings on the programme. We don’t have Battersea Power Station this year, which is always wildly popular, because, as you know, it is currently a huge building site.
Cutlers Hall
You’ve mentioned that Open City has become politicised this year. How have you teamed up with the mayor’s #londonisopen campaign?
In essence, Open House is a celebration of London’s great spirit of curiosity and Londoners’ desire to work and live together. So in this respect Open House is a pure expression of the mayor’s new campaign, #LondonIsOpen. They approached us because they liked our attitude and our belief that London should be an open city, a place that is inclusive, cultured and friendly.
In terms of actual politics, we packed the listings guide with articles and features on the challenges facing London, from housing to infrastructure and why we have to fight for public space. As Observer architecture critic Rowan Moore notes in his Open House article ‘Whose Space is it anyway’, Hyde Park once kept the proles – us – at bay and was a toffs-only domain!
Have you already thought about next year, what buildings would you hope to include in the future?
We’d love to get OMA’s Rothschild building in the City of London. It’s such a secretive organisation but one which holds great sway over British life, so I think by throwing open its doors, it could make a huge difference to Londoners’ perception of their own city.
The app, openhouselondon, is available to download for both Apple and Android.
Cutlers Hall Image: Wikimedia commonsThe fixed factor at http://flickr.com/photos/49116414@N08/5174501092
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