London Festival of Architecture 2016: students from the University of Brighton have created installations for London's East Street Market, including a stall of interactive games and a cocktail-making machine (+ slideshow).
Called Live Projects, the designs are the result of an academic competition set by London-based Studio Gil founders Pedro Gil and Christo Meyer, who teach undergraduate Studio 55 at the University of Brighton's school of architecture.
Students were required to research the Latin American community in Elephant and Castle, southeast London, and design an installation for the weekly East Street Market, one of London's oldest markets.
"We asked students to experiment with and research into deployable, small-scale architectures," said Pedro Gil. "The Live Projects were built to be displayed in East Street market, as a way to tap into the energy of the existing market."
The live installations are an extension of a long-running partnership between Studio Gil and Carnaval del Pueblo, an annual festival, to involve Elephant and Castle's Latin American residents in community projects.
Studio Gil has curated a series of events, called The Latin Corridor, as part of RIBA's Open Studios initiative for the London Festival of Architecture – a month-long programme of events and installations in the UK capital.
"The project was seen as threefold in its outcomes: as a learning device for architectural students, to promote Carnaval del Pueblo's work, and to celebrate the vibrancy of East Street market," Gil told Dezeen.
Pedro Gil and Christo Meyer chose two of the student's projects to be erected on Saturday 4 June 2016. The first, by student Josh Dobson, was designed to distribute information about Carnaval del Pueblo.
It features a series of strings, pulleys and hooks that form interactive games and a canon that releases paper confetti. The stall was painted orange and two shades of yellow to stand out in the market.
At the end of a day, it can be flat-packed into a 2.4- by two-metre box.
"The structure deploys from a flat-pack bay into a three dimensional interactive market stall," Gil told Dezeen. "Various animated devices such as clothes hangers, storage for food and goods, cash register, interactive games, and confetti cannons all serve to promote Carnaval del Pueblo."
The second installation was James Goreings' pink- and blue-painted structure, which makes Brazilian Caipirinhas cocktails.
The stall is formed of two free-standing mini towers, which feature storage for the ingredients and tabletops to make the drinks. A copper tap wraps the structure and releases alcohol.
"The cocktail-making machine consists of a series of consecutive process: storing limes, cutting limes, dispensing sugar cubes, crushing lime and sugar cubes, releasing a 50-millilitre measure of Cachaca liquor and assembling the ingredients together in a plastic cup," said Gil.
Carnaval del Pueblo arranged additional entertainment for the day, including Mariachis, Acrobatic Salsa dancing, and singing performances.
A video of Josh Dobson's flat-pack Market Stall
The two projects were installed on East Street market on Saturday 4 June 2016 as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2016, which runs from 1 to 30 June.
Curated by director Tamsie Thomson, this year's London Festival of Architecture is themed around communities, with topics ranging from guerilla gardening to creative workspaces.
Dezeen's top 10 picks for the festival include buildings constructed from cardboard boxes, an exhibition about post-war housing and a garden designed to promote the benefits of urban farming.
Studio Gil was founded by architect Pedro Gil in 2008. The studio's projects include a Victorian residence that was renovated and extended for a retired schoolteacher and a stairwell extension to a Modernist home in Primrose Hill.