| London Open House 2005 - 2008 Gunpowder Park's flagship building the Field Station, as seen from Sewardstone Road entrance | Architects Randall Shaw Billingham (RSB) have created a striking environmentally friendly Field Station at the main entrance to Gunpowder Park on Sewardstone Road. The building functions as a creative environment for workshops, meetings, exhibitions and seminars, and is one of the office bases for the Lee Valley Rangers. The monumental gabion front wall of recycled crushed concrete is a regional landmark which includes cast artefacts of found objects relating to the heritage of the Park as a Royal Ordnance munitions testing facility. These concrete cast artefacts and the ‘Boom Boom’ sculpture at the main entrance are by artist Chris Tipping. Special activities: A treasure hunt activity took place, to search for the concrete cast objects by Chris Tipping in the gabion wall. These objects represent a storyline offering clues and references to the rich history and life of the site. Most of these artefacts can be seen, but some are buried deep within the wall. A prize for finding all of the artefacts in the wall was a limited edition DVD by artist Simon Honey; Research Dept X, 2004, which documents the creation and history of Gunpowder Park. Haring Woods Studio (formerly Landscape+Arts Network Services) hosted the Open House London weekend, displaying information about the building and the Park’s development, and about current arts and environment projects. Open House London: The Capital's biggest architectural festival, Open House London, provides the annual opportunity to experience buildings in the flesh, and better understand architecture, engineering and design. In celebration of the Capital’s design excellence, over 600 architectural activities are planned which also gives direct access to the teams that design, construct and regenerate Londoners’ environments. All access is free of charge. |