Combining place and fiction, the book takes well-known institutions, epochs and lifestyles from tens sties across the city of London and renders them fantastic in a string of architectural short stories. The medium is an intersection of paper assemblages and text, occupying a liminal territory where familiar characters find themselves in unexpected environments and places transform into active protagonists. The stories have been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum but are collected for the first time in a single volume, laid out as one phantasmagoric city vision. Painstakingly constructed, the stories encompass a retelling of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ at Smithfield, a dating agency at Battersea, and a ringed transport system manifesting as a celestial river over the great metropolis. Enthralling and inspirational, this cabinet of curiosity and wonder depicts a vision of the city that is immoral, anarchic, unscientific and at the same time glorious, ravishing and a pleasure to behold.
Official opening by Elspeth McBain (Chief Executive, Lighthouse) with (right to left) Christina Varouni-Giatrakou, Dan Hambly and Tony Bednall (Assistant Dean, School of Design, AUCB).
