Whitechapel Gallery

Matt+Fiona

Room For Art

05 Dec 2017 - 04 Mar 2018

MATT+FIONA, Made In Oakfield, 2017. Copyright French and Tye
MATT+FIONA
Room For Art
5 December 2017 – 4 March 2018

Situated on the fringes of Canary Wharf and the Olympic Park, the Lansbury Estate finds itself on the margins of rapid redevelopment. Built as the Live Architecture exhibition of the 1951 Festival of Britain, the design of the estate proposed a new model for community focused neighbourhood planning. Capturing this utopian optimism, the duo Matt + Fiona have chosen the Modernist Lansbury Lawrence Primary School as the site for a new commission: building the school’s new Art Room.

From pupil–led archive research, design consultations and site surveys, to the carefully considered scale models and architectural intervention, the exhibition reveals moments in a collaborative process along with initial design ideas for the school’s Art Room. The project proposes not just a building but also a way of embedding creative practice across the life of the school and the surrounding neighbourhood.

Matt + Fiona is a collaborative venture between Architect Matthew Springett, principal of London based architectural practice MSA and Educator Fiona MacDonald.