The Illuminated River Foundation has announced a shortlist of six firms that will compete to design a new permanent light installation along the Thames River in London. From a pool of 105 teams (made up of 346 different firms), the winners were selected based on experience, past projects and team composition. The six finalists will now continue on to develop lighting schemes for the Westminster, Waterloo, London and Chelsea Bridges, as well as a design masterplan for the 17 iconic London bridges between Albert and Tower.
Continue reading to see the list of six finalists.
The six finalist teams (listed alphabetically) are :
- Adjaye Associates with Chris Ofili, Thukral & Tagra, Doug Aitken, AKTII, HPF (Hurley Palmer Flatt), Four Communications, DP9, Plan A and DHA Designs
- AL_A with Asif Kapadia, Simon Stephens, SEAM Design and GROSS.MAX
- Diller Scofidio + Renfro with L'Observatoire International, Arup, Transsolar, Jennifer Tipton and Oliver Beer
- Les Éclairagistes Associés with ecqi, ewo, Federico Pietrella, and GVA Lighting Europe Limited
- Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands with Future\Pace, Leo Villareal, Pentagram, Price & Myers, Atelier Ten, Beckett Rankine and Core Five
- Sam Jacob Studio and Simon Heijdens with Electrolight, Daisy Froud and Elliott Wood
“The final shortlist represents an exhilarating mix of talent, inspiration and design approach,” said Hannah Rothschild, Chair of the Illuminated River Foundation.
The competition brief also calls special attention to the environmental impact of the design, challenging teams to create “an elegant and charismatic light installation that will be forward-thinking and environmentally-friendly, enhancing the capital’s status as a low carbon beacon and a world leader in cutting edge technology and engineering.”
Organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, the competition will be judged by a world-class jury including names such as artists James Turrell and Sir Michael Craig-Martin and Dame Julia Peyton-Jones, former director of the Serpentine Galleries.
The project is supported by a coalition of stakeholders including the Mayor of London, the City of London, Westminster City Council, Transport for London, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and Network Rail. The Illuminated River Foundation is expected to raise around £20m from private sources to support the implementation of the design.
The final conceptual proposals will be released in November in London and online, with a winner to be announced in early December.
More information can be found on the competition website, here.