Airship-Inspired Inflatable Venue to Set Sail on Regent’s Canal in London

This Saturday, an immense artwork designed by local architects Thomas Randall-Page and Benedetta Rogers will traverse the Regent’s Canal in east London. Called “AirDraft,” the Airship-inspired canal boat is the 2018 winner of the Antepavilion competition to design and build an experimental architectural structure at Hoxton Docks‘ artists studio alongside the canal. The winner was chosen from a pool of 132 entries in an open competition run by London-based property development company Shiva, in a collaboration with nonprofit Architecture Foundation.

Now in its second year, the program challenged participants to repurpose a 62-foot-long 1934 motor barge—called Ouse, it is normally anchored alongside the Hoxton Docks—as the base for a floating structure. “As with its predecessor, the concept of the floating Antepavilion is not prescribed,” noted the competition brief. “Entries may be purely sculptural, structural, or political, or have a real or notional function such as social, habitable, or performance space.” The participating teams were also encouraged to use recycled and renewable materials, and to take into consideration the context and history of the canal.

A tribute to Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw and the work of Ant Farm—a former San Francisco–based avant-garde architecture and design collective—the barge was brought back to life as a traveling cultural venue, “a space for relaxation and performance,” the designers called it in a press release. The team worked with Cameron Balloons and London-based structural engineer AKT II to build a two-level, inflatable structure that could travel under the canal’s lowest bridges. As a result, AirDraft can deflate quickly to provide enough clearance when floating under the bridges on the canal. “This provides the potential for Ouse and her new cargo to relocate and tour if desired,” Randall-Page says on his website. When inflated, AriDraft can accommodate up to 30 people.

“As much as canals changed London, London’s canals have changed, from conduits of industry and cargo to arteries of art, culture and leisure,” Randall-Page says on his website. “Through this proposal we want to reflect upon this change.”

“Supporting emerging practices has always been central to the Architecture Foundation’s mission, so we were delighted to be collaborating with Shiva to create the Antepavilion program,” Ellis Woodman, the Architecture Foundation’s director, said in a press release. “The annual commission has quickly developed into a significant event in the architectural calendar and an important stepping stone for a generation of emerging architects.”

Starting tomorrow, AirDraft will set sail on a week-long journey featuring a series of daily events and music performances on various stops alongside the canal.

Last year, London-based Pup Architects won the first Antepavilion commission with its H-VAC proposal.