London Festival of ARchitecture History - 2013 - A time for architecture

Commissioned by Barbican Art Gallery, Dalston House was created by Argentine artist Leandro Erlich for a vacant lot on Ashwin Street, Hackney. Highly playful and participatory in nature, Dalston House resembled a theatre set, featuring a full-scale façade of a Victorian terraced house. The façade was installed on the ground with a mirrored structure positioned overhead at a 45-degree angle. When visitors climbed on to the horizontal surface, their reflections in the mirror gave the illusion that they were suspended from or scaling the building vertically. Erlich designed and decorated the façade to evoke the houses that previously stood on the block and to question ideas of perception, representation and our experience of seemingly familiar architecture.

For the third year running, RIBA London commissioned a team of students and graduates of architecture to design an installation for Southbank Centre's summer festival. Mentored by an emerging architectural practice and RIBA London, this successful collaboration has given many students the opportunity to gain experience and exposure, delivering a real client-facing project. The 2013 RIBA London Student team - selected from various architecture schools across England - were asked to design and deliver a Pie Shop as part of the Southbank Centre's Festival of Neighbourhood.