Pride Pop Up

Location: St Anne's Church, Soho

Date: 2021

Status: Temporary

Project Types: Pavillion

Client: Architecture LGBT+

In collaboration with Architecture LGBT+, ‘Pride Pop Up’ competition was open to architecture students, recent graduates, emerging practices as well as representatives from more established practices to design a pop up installation that represented LGBT+ architects and their contribution to architecture past and present. There was entirely blind judging undertaken by an expert panel including Tom Guy (chair, Architecture LGBT+), Sarah Akigbogun (creative director, Studio Aki and vice-chair, Women in Architecture), Anne Cosentino (equality, diversity and inclusion manager, RIBA), the Revd Simon Buckley (rector, St Anne’s Church, Soho), George Hudson (producer Soho Live Studios), Matthew Pendleton (principal design, conservation and sustainability officer, Westminster Council and Rob Wilson (architecture editor, The Architects’ Journal).

Winners

Rainbow after the storm by Foster + Partners

Pride Pop Up © Aaron Hargreaves

‘Rainbow After The Storm’ is a colourful and interactive pavilion designed by a team of young architects working at Foster + Partners. Despite the cancellation of the 2021 Pride in London parade, the lightweight pop up was installed in September 2021, in the gardens of St Anne’s Church in Soho, celebrating the contribution of LGBT+ architects to architecture past and present. ‘Rainbow After The Storm’ was also in place for Inside Out Festival and the Soho Live festival, which is an official partner for the project alongside Westminster Council, the RIBA, and St Anne’s Church. ‘Rainbow After The Storm’ stands as a reminder that, for the LGBTQ+ community, Covid-19 is not the first pandemic of recent times.

The winning team – who all worked remotely to develop the design – comprises Tyler Thurston, Katia Egiziano, Melinda de Wet, Elizabetta Della Vedova, Alessandra Sonvico, Samantha McDougall, Jorge Gomez Bernal, Rupert Inman, George Goldsmith, Mrinal Rammohan, Anna Griesi, Andres Gonzalez, Angel Garcia, Laura Suico, Hamza Farooq, Nathan Langdon, Amy Burruss and Hannah Gasparutti.

Afterlife

Following the success of the pavilion, Foster + Partners ran an in-house competition ‘after-life’ which invited colleagues to design a structure using the dismantled elements of the pavilion.

Judged by a panel of architects and colleagues from their facilities and sustainability departments, the three designs were selected: ‘Particles’ by Shervan Chan (Architectural Assistant), ‘Climbing for equality’ by Pablo Diego Pastor, (Architectural Assistant) and ‘In Pride of Idleness’ by Akash Changlani, (Sustainability Designer) and Isik Goren, (Sustainability Coordinator).

The winning designs were built on Foster + Partner’s London campus and revealed to colleagues at a celebratory Pride event in July 2022.