Potemkin
2024
London, United Kingdom
Radiant X Studio Proxi
Andreas Galliker, Valentin Bossart, Ruby Hall, Severin Ziegler, Christian Seiterle
Potemkin is a conception for a pavilion in the London borough of Southwark.
Framed by a membrane that interweaves the imagination of the past, present and future, Potemkin becomes a textile screen, embodying the collision of multiple realities and epochs within a single site. The Pavilion draws from two central moments of transformation in the neighbourhood: the projected continuation of the terraced houses on the plot and the former portal of the Bricklayer’s Arms train station. These two pinnacles of speculation stand as dominant forces shaping the area’s history and development.
Site plan 1900s
The portal of the Bricklayer’s Arms, a 19th century railway station that was instrumental in the area’s expansion, represents the speculation and opportunity the railways brought to the neighbourhood. This element speaks to a time when the train station was a powerful agent of change, driving industrial growth and urbanisation.
Bricklayer's Arms Station 1844
New victorian terraced houses are projected on the site of the pavilion. The plan to continue building terraced houses on the plot, formerly the homes of railway workers, are now absorbed into a wave of gentrification. These homes, once integral to the working class fabric of the neighbourhood, today are instruments of speculation and romanticism. New terraced houses create a corrupted narrative, pretending to have always been there.
Page's Walk 2024
These two speculative elements stand in stark opposition, framing the exhibition of the site and marking it as a place of reflection, dispute and provocation. The membrane that contains them exists only in two dimensions - an architectural blueprint of unresolved tensions. Within this boundary, textiles simulate curtains that seem to open up a stage, inviting us to question: what can the plot become?
The site transforms into a theatre of play. In Potemkin, the frame is merely a suggestion, everything is possible within it. Through its fragile membrane, the imagination of the past, present and future plays out, revealing how speculation and the housing market script the narrative of the city itself.
Collage
Collage Facade
Collage Interior
Site plan
Elevation