southwark lido: changing the setting, changing politics
Do unexpected places create an impetus for unexpected encounters?” with this question Catherine Fiesschi opened her talk on inhabiting spaces and using them differently. “If we come out of our comfort zones does that entail that we find new words, new ways of engaging relationships?” Can we preserve public space and rethink ‘the public’ at the same time? We should think of enhancing the public, private, or political identity by using the space differently.
Southwark’s Lido shows how, within the context of an architectural festival, a physical temporary installation can create opportunities for overlap, encounters with the unexpected. It shows on a small scale how one can respond to real needs, and work within a real existing space. Architecture is here no more than a means, as the bar, the sauna and sundeck are. The objective is to create “space” and “place”; a real place where visitors, neighbours, politicians and artists mingle, meet, enjoy, talk, discuss and create – by doing so – public space again.
Dimitri Messu & Véronique Patteeuw
