RIBA Bandstand - Festival of Britian

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) commissioned a team of graduates and students to provide a temporary bandstand on the South bank of the Thames. This was part of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. The design of the canopy was inspired by the traditional British Maypole and the famous Skylon sculpture of the 1950's Festival.

They approached Custom Covers with this concept drawing and agreed materials and a time scale.

The canopy was manufactured using a Serge Ferrari Solits mesh fabric in order to allow good light penetration and a proved longevity. It is atached to two steel hoops and then suspended by use of load restraint straps.

It was manufactured within a week of the design being finalised and installed during the next week.

The Southbank Centre is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain with a four-month Festival of British culture and creativity from the 22nd April until the 4th September.

The Bandstand canopy is proudly sitting outside the Royal Festival Hall as a space for outside performance or just for lunch.

Alex Whitby, RIBA London Council student representative, explained: 'The process has been a lot of fun and it is conceived very much in the spirit of Moya and Powell's Skylon- themselves straight out of university when awarded the 1951 festival commission.