London-based Marks Barfield Architects has designed a temporary glazed pavilion raised up on criss-crossing steel columns that looks set be built near the firm's London Eye observation wheel on the South Bank.
Marks Barfield Architects won an international competition to design the pavilion, intended to form part of the redevelopment of the current Shell Centre site. If granted planning permission, the four-storey building would house a marketing suite for the development as well as educational and visitor facilities.
"We chose local architects Marks Barfield for this building as they have already made a significant contribution to the South Bank with their world-renowned design of the London Eye," said John Pagano of developers, Braeburn Estates.
"The high-quality designs they have proposed for the visitor pavilion will be in keeping with our aspiration for the Shell Centre scheme, and complement the South Bank's cultural offer," he added.
The 20-metre-high glazed building would be built on a plot at the edge of the recently redesigned Jubilee Gardens and would rise from a ten-square-metre base intended to minimise its footprint and impact on the landscaped public space.
Subsequent storeys would expand outwards to provide more floorspace for the meeting room and educational facilities housed on the first floor and showrooms for the flats proposed as part of the site's redevelopment on the second and third floors.
Marks Barfield designed the pavilion to be dismantled and reused when no longer required at the Shell Centre site. A planning application submitted in relation to the pavilion is subject to the main development being approved.
"In the longer term, our proposed plans for the South Bank include the transformation of the Hungerford Car Park into a park which would result in the expansion of Jubilee Gardens by a third," said Pagano.
"This would herald a major enhancement to the public areas adjacent to the new Shell Centre site with landscaped recreational space available for everyone to enjoy."