The Nest Pavilion Invited to Be Part of The Union Street Urban Orchard

The Nest, a wood pavilion commissioned by the Finnish Institute in London, has been launched at the London Festival of Architecture 2010.

The Nest, a wood pavilion commissioned by the Finnish Institute in London, has been launched at the London Festival of Architecture 2010. The Nest is presented as part of the Union Street Urban Orchard, a disused site that has been turned into a flourishing urban garden for summer 2010.

The Nest is the result of an architectural competition with the Wood Program at the Department of Architecture at the Aalto University in Finland and the Finnish Institute in London. The structure has been designed and built by an international group of students and in-house architects of the Wood Program.

After original plans of presenting the Nest on the Finnish Institute's own rooftop, the Nest was invited by the Architecture Foundation to be part of the Union Street Urban Orchard project. The orchard, located at 100 Union Street in the Bankside area, is specially created in collaboration a number of community groups. Events of the urban orchard include urban food growing workshops, a plant adaptation scheme and outdoor screenings.

The Nests' pergola-like design, consisting of a mesh of shelter, decking and stools, adds an abstract timber garden into site and offers a spot where visitors of the orchard can meet, rest and explore the garden throughout the summer.

We are very excited to have The Nest as part of The Union Street Urban Orchard. The structure is beautiful and fits well within the language of a garden. The Nest will be greatly enjoyed by the community and visitors to the orchard, enthuses Heather Ring, designer of the orchard.

In September, the orchard will be dismantled and all the trees and plants will be given to local estates and other community gardens to remain as a lasting legacy of the 2010 London Festival of Architecture. Plans are in place to find a final home in London for the Nest.

The first installation of the Nest as part of the urban orchard also marks the end of a four-month-long period of intensive planning for the students of Aalto University.

The Nest has been an interesting collaboration, where all 14 students got the opportunity to be part of every step of the process. We are extremely proud of the final product - a mixture of minimalism and complexity, says Ilari Airikkala from the Wood Program.

The Nest is part of the International Architecture Showcase organised by the British Council and The Architecture Foundation for the London Festival of Architecture 2010. Another Finnish project at the city-wide celebration of architecture in the capital is ‘Helsinki Horizon 2030; 20 km New Urban Public Waterfront', an exhibition that presents the changes that Helsinki is facing as three formal harbour and industrial areas will be developed into new residential districts.

The Nest at The Union Street Urban Orchard
19 June - 19 September 2010
100 Union Street, London SE1 (Southwark, Borough).

Opening hours 9.30am - 5pm Monday - Sunday until Sunday 4th July 2010, and then 10am - 5pm Monday - Friday until the garden closes.

Until July 1, all 14 entries from the architectural competition are on display at the Finnish Institute (35-36 Eagle Street, WC1R 4AQ London).
Opening hours: Mon - Thu 12 - 6 pm

More information:
www.lfa2010.org
www.unionstreetorchard.org.uk