Hackney’s Looking Glass
Location: Columbia and Brunswick Wharf, London
Area: -
Status: -
Kasawoo’s entry for Antepavilion 2021, a public art pavilion situated on the roof top of the Columbia and Brunswick Wharf complex, London.
Hackney’s Looking Glass reimagines the site as a connector and proposes a playful observation platform for the community. It rethinks the bartizan as a social infrastructure, rather than an element of defense. Four periscopes, designed as independent and movable objects, are strategically arranged on the roof of the site allowing both residents and visitors to see their city in new unexpected ways.
Hackney’s Looking Glass re-uses the wood frames (57 x 150mm) and the sheathing (12mm and 18mm) from Potemkin Theatre as the main structure for the periscopes. The new wooden structure will be painted and then cladded with brushed aluminum panels, allowing the antepavilion to subtly reflect its immediate context.
While social distancing measures have kept communities apart, they have also reinvigorated our appreciation of public space. Hackney’s Looking Glass responds to our newly awakened collective desire to explore our neighborhoods and question what it means to truly see our surroundings. By positioning multiple periscopes on the site’s roof, these objects allow for people on the roof, on the street, and on the canal to interact with the collected views simultaneously.
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