London’s Festival of Architecture opening weekend, coordinated by RIBA London, celebrates one of the capital’s most elegant thoroughfares, the Regency terraces of the north-south route between The Regent’s Park and St James’s Park, designed by John Nash – one of London’s most influential town planner architects who shaped much of the London we know today.
The 2km stretch, known as the ‘Nash Ramblas’- a name coined by architect and urban designer Sir Terry Farrell, is populated by some of the UK’s foremost historical, cultural and architecturally important landmarks. Thanks to a unique partnership between RIBA London, The Royal Parks, English Heritage, The Crown Estate and Applied Information Group (AIG) the public will be able to explore the route and delve into a wealth of rare archival images and information using a new, cutting-edge, iPhone application designed to take users on an annotated architecture tour around the route’s key landmarks and festival events.
The app is free to download and has been designed by AIG and developed by The Electric Mapping Company using ‘real time’ mapping. It allows users to self-navigate over 30 key sites taking in many of London’s most iconic buildings and spaces with unique galleries supplied by RIBA pix and the National Monuments Record including Nash’s All Souls, Broadcasting house, Liberty, Trafalgar Square, Waterloo Place and The Royal Parks. In addition, the application provides dedicated links and detailed information on many of the events, talks, debates, installations and exhibitions that are taking place in the West End throughout the festival.
Tamsie Thomson, RIBA London Director, commented “We’re extremely excited about the launch of the Nash Ramblas iPhone application and have relished the opportunity to work closely with English Heritage, The Royal Parks and The Crown Estate in developing it. At the touch of a finger, not only will the application enrich the experience for all London Festival of Architecture visitors, it will provide a unique, intimate insight into the genius of John Nash and all those who have contributed to make the route one of London’s greatest and most celebrated architectural achievements.”
In addition to the application launch, during the course of the opening LFA weekend a series of other high profile events will celebrate the origins of the route and explore contemporary as well as future plans to enhance the 2km stretch.
To the north, ‘Following Nash’ an open-air exhibition in The Regent’s Park discusses the concept of Nash Ramblas and its history, while nearby a landmark temporary pavilion, designed by Price & Myers will be erected on Park Crescent to play host to a two-day programme of diverse talks and debate.
Nash Saturday takes in talks and stories inspired by John Nash, the Georgian city and contemporary London particulars while International Sunday features presentations and debate from global practices as far ranging as Colombia, Poland and the Netherlands.
To the south, marking the start of the Nash Ramblas, is an innovative solar-powered hydraulic lift, designed to capture the imagination as it carries people up and down the Duke of York steps. The zero-energy concept, developed by Matthew Lloyd Architects, working in collaboration with The Royal Engineers, Architecture Inside Out, Shape and RIBA London, will showcase the potential for renewable energy at work and focus the attention on inclusive design.
Five of Regent Street’s leading retailers, Oasis, Banana Republic, COS, Austin Reed and Anthropologie have teamed up with 5 of the UK’s most innovative architects Hawkins/Brown, Moxon, Spacelab, Tonkin Liu and Sarah Wigglesworth Architects to install a spectacular series of Nash inspired window displays, collectively forming an open air exhibition which is set to rival the Christmas lights as a visual spectacle. For a full schedule of Nash Ramblas weekend events, see hub press release.
Nash Ramblas iPhone application is available to download from the App Store TODAY.
For images, further information or app previews contact Rory Scott or Helen Horten-Smith at Caro Communications on 020 7336 8488 or rory@carocommunications.com / helen@carocommunications.com