Competition

The Architecture Foundation and Lift, London International Festival of Theatre, launched an open international competition to design the Lift New Parliament, a transportable meeting and performance space, which will open at the Lift Festival in June 2008.

The competition process was anonymous until the short-list was revealed for the final stage interviews. The jury unanimously selected AOC's scheme as the winning project.

The short-listed schemes are as follows:

Design 1 (AOC with Momentum)
Design 2 (Blee & Tite)
Design 3 (Wong-Wai Pui with Arup)
Design 4 (muf architecture/art with Atelier One)

Rowan Moore comments:
"LIFT's New Parliament project raises provocative issues about the role of architecture in supporting public engagement with public space, and promises
to do so in a particularly smart and intriguing way. Their idea was rewarded by an entry in the competition that showed a rich range of possibilities.

"AOC's project stood out for the way in which it addressed all the principal requirements of the brief, in particular the need for a design that could evolve in response to LIFT's participatory processes. We could see how it could develop over time as different people make different contributions to it. We also felt it would be both beautiful and practical."

Lift New Parliament

“I believe that the Lift New Parliament is one of the most innovative and important cultural developments for London in the coming decade.”
Jude Kelly OBE, Artistic Director of the South Bank Centre, who will host the Lift New Parliament in June 2008

London is the most culturally diverse city in the world. Around two million of its seven million dwellers were born outside the UK. Bengali, Cantonese, Polish, Arabic… between us we speak 300 languages.

Lift, the London International Festival of Theatre, started out 25 years ago, bringing the best of international theatre to London and exploring what theatre can be. It has been a window on the world.

But now Lift has a new idea and, as a global meeting place, London can make it happen.