London Roof
Architectural Performance in Trafalgar Square
London / United Kingdom 2002

osa_office for subversive architecture

Team: Karsten Huneck, Bernd Trümpler

The first project of osa in the UK

London Roof aspires to communicate through a public and interactive installation, the complexities inherent in the nature of architecture.

The notion that the physical impact of architecture has a timeless and ephemeral meaning beyond the prosaic act of building houses inspires this temporary public installation, challenging the meaning of ‘space’.

This is not about a fixed and built space but rather a fluid space relying on public participation. The nature of this act is to express the belief that architecture and the construction of another type of spatial identity relies on the passer by and participant to participate in unidentifiable but everyday functions containing: structures, networks, motions, changes and symbols. The umbrella embodies this concept in a simple way: through the act of building a roof over your own head.

Practically, we propose a new and fluid roof created through the connection of these potential architectural modules thereby creating a new temporary surface in the midst of Trafalgar Square.