OLYMPIA DESIGN NEWS
Pavilion for London Design Festival, From the 14 September
This year, Olympia has commissioned a new pavilion as part of the London Design Festival, called “Off the Shelf”, created by artist Rio Kobayashi and engineers Webb Yates. From 14 September, the space will bring together a roster of leading talent for workshops and performances via a cultural program called “On the Shelf”, offering a place where people can meet and intermingle. It will also highlight Olympia’s credentials as London’s newest destination for culture and creativity.
The structure itself takes inspiration from Olympia’s heritage architecture and the traditional wooden homes of Kobayashi’s childhood and utilises contemporary engineering for the build, celebrating the blend of old and new in its design.
The construction of this geometric structure, astoundingly, uses almost no screws or bolts, highlighting Olympia’s commitment to sustainability, as it can easily be disassembled and returned, reused, or resold, making it an extremely environmentally conscious design.
The first installation for “On the Shelf” is by artist and plant biologist Cynthia Fan, and explores the natural world and the interplay between art and science, inviting guests to see things from a different perspective and see how everything is connected.