‘What if civic buildings in London transformed from enclosed institutional structures into a horizontal system integrated into the very fabric of our streets, opening up and encouraging civic participation on the future of London and its people?’ As part of the London Festival of Architecture, which took place during June 2024 in London, the architecture and design studio Urban Radicals came up with four structures in the heart of the vibrant Square Mile of London: a Speaker’s Plinths, a Voicing Pod, a Roundtable and a Public Assembly. These platforms of expression were made for the people of London and designed to encourage sharing ideas, outside the typically confined institutional buildings. AA interviewed the architects to look back on this successful initiative, one of whose components has been permanently installed in the British capital.

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Interview by Yên Bui

Top left: Speaker’s Plinths/top right: the Voicing Pod/bottom left: Roundtable/bottom right: Assembly

AA: Can you tell us more about urban planning and political context in London?

Urban Radicals: We are neither planners nor politicians, but as architects and citizens in London, we feel the changes in society and these rowdy times are deeply reflected in both the built and social context of London. In terms of planning, London, like many major European cities, is balancing between conservation and regeneration. On the one hand, there’s a focus on preserving historical ‘beauties’, which often limits the architectural language to something exclusive. On the other, regeneration is largely driven by private developments, resulting in more tall buildings in the centre, as well as public spaces taken up by developers which blur the lines into privatised public space. Both approaches are closely tied to capital, reinforcing what is deemed institutionalised and acceptable.

Assembly is an open-air street auditorium which was located outside the Grade II Maughan Library, King’s College London, formerly the Public Records Office.

We are particularly interested in this threshold between conservation and the ‘museumification’ of cities – when urban environments become unwelcoming to ‘others’ or uninhabitable for their own residents, reducing them to mere props. At the same time, the sprawling of the city more and more towards the periphery, speaks of new people moving in, and new vernaculars defined as new towns seem to grow. The Labour government’s ambitious plan to build 1.5 million homes in five years feels urgent but monumental – an almost impossible task given the current systems and infrastructures. We would like to be optimistic and of course involved, but there’s also a concern that more copy-paste, low-quality construction might take place to facilitate these. Instead, the government could bring innovators across disciplines together (policymakers, planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, material researchers, cultural geographers and anthropologists) to achieve this for a longer-term and everlasting project. True sustainability, in our opinion, goes far beyond the material, into the social acceptance and operation of a space to endure and grow over time.

The structure, which is the largest one from the four street assemblies and can accommodate 40 people, aims to merge the democratic processes typically confined to institutional buildings with the openness and direct accessibility of the street.

Politically, the shift towards a Labour government reflects a growing consensus for solidarity, empathy, and the need to accommodate more people – to make London liveable for all, rather than just a privileged few which is what it has been the past couple of decades. The challenges inherited by this government are immense, but the change in public attitude is significant. People appear more engaged and vocal about shaping their urban environment – not just in terms of buildings but how we live in and navigate the city. London has a long history of resilience and activism, from the anti-racism protests that gave rise to today’s Notting Hill Carnival, to recent demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza which are now happening routinely.  Londoners have consistently been out in the streets to support equity and this links to wider notions of environment, learning to live with others, respect contexts and places, and stop extractivist and colonial practices.
We see London’s streets as vital spaces for a more active democracy – for voice, assembly, and participation rooted in empathy and solidarity. This belief shapes our work and will continue to focus our attention on the street as a connecting and transformative physical space.

Roundtable is a circular gathering space designed for shared meals, discussions, a pint, a cigarette, a scroll, a space to read a book and sip a coffee, a space to ponder; facing inwards or outwards. It was originally located near Moorgate Station, close to landmarks like the Barbican and Smithfield Market.

How did it affect the Alternative Parliament for London project?

The project was born out of these tensions and the voices of people in public. It reimagines an alternative parliament taking place in the street; as a space for culture, democracy, and equity – challenging the notion of what a ‘building for democracy’ might be. Instead of grand, institutional structures, inaccessible or accessible to only a few, we proposed small-scale, open-for-all, and intimate interventions. These are spaces that don’t just exist but actively engage with public life, sparking dialogue, curiosity, and new ways of connecting with the street.

The table’s form acts as a crossroad or ‘roundabout’ for meeting. Designed as a 12 to 18 person gathering spot, it invites shared meals, conversations, or simply a place to pause and observe the city.

‘The street is a room by agreement. A community room the walls of which belong to the donors. Its ceiling is the sky…’ We love this quote from Louis I. Kahn and we often use it in our undergraduate teaching. It feels more relevant than ever.
We wanted to re-open the street to what it once was, as best represented by the ancient Agora, bringing the democratic processes it once held back into our open spaces. Rather than designing an enclosed building, we envisioned a horizontal, accessible system for public debate where everyone – not just architects, politicians, or planners – could participate and contribute.

Take the Voicing Pod, for example. It was placed in the underbelly of the Lloyd’s Building (the famous ‘inside-out’ building by Richard Rogers) – a site that falls under Section 106 mandates, which require private developments to allocate a portion of their footprint for public use. These prime location spaces in the centre of London – rooftop gardens, viewing galleries, or underbellies like this one – are legally public but are often invisible or underused. We saw this as an opportunity to show how such spaces can come alive through discussions, exhibitions, and performances that invite passers-by to participate or even organise their own events – reclaiming public space as a site for civic life, not just a corridor to pass through.

Voicing Pod is an intimate space for conversation, podcasts, and public engagement, originally sited in the underbelly of the iconic Lloyd’s Building, also known as the ‘inside-out building’ designed by architect Richard Rogers.

For us, this project also addresses the broader issue of siloed conversations in architecture and politics. As architects, we feel institutionalised processes, such as public consultations, often feel too controlled and fail to engage the people most affected by urban planning and new developments – people who are often already marginalised from other forms of civic participation. Similarly, architects frequently speak only to other architects or audiences already embedded in the discourse. We wanted to disrupt this cycle by creating installations that draw in unexpected audiences – people who might not otherwise have a voice in these conversations – and get them involved.

Following its successful run at the Lloyd’s Building, the Voicing Pod has now been permanently rehomed at Cody Dock, a creative community hub along the River Lea in Newham.

We believe designers have the capacity not just to deliver physical spaces but also to disseminate ideas about the future of our cities. For us, these installations were tools for engagement – an experimental, alternative urban strategy for the City of London. They were designed to bring people together to discuss critical issues like representation in public space, while making architecture itself more socially and intellectually approachable.

Our role extended beyond that of traditional architects, incorporating programming and cultural curation to activate the platforms and bring people into them. This ensured they became dynamic spaces for discussion, accessible to a wider audience. At one of our events, two members of the House of Commons joined one of our public discussions, which was incredible to witness. It demonstrated a real appetite for another kind of democratic deliberation – and perhaps another kind of architecture.

Speaker’s Plinths are a series of elevated platforms placed along London’s historic City Wall, that encouraged the voicing of individual opinions, sharing reflection on the city, as well as prompting informal discussion and performance along the street.

Do you plan to recreate it for another city?

Absolutely – we’d love to see this type of work commissioned elsewhere and would be thrilled to facilitate this and become involved. The ideas behind what we do are universal.  Increasingly, people around the world are raising questions about ownership, access, identity, and the role of public space in civic life and democracy. At a time when many European cities are grappling with questions of identity and the integration of new populations, projects like this could offer relevant ways to imagine spaces of participation in the street – giving a voice and platform to those who are often on the ‘outside.’

For us, this isn’t about destabilising existing places or systems, but about challenging, refreshing, and adding to the status quo. Participation is a powerful way of engaging all kinds of people, fostering meaningful conversations, and strengthening cultural and social ties. We believe that as architects and designers, we can contribute to inclusion by layering and enriching contexts rather than erasing or overwriting them. This approach sustains and amplifies the operation of existing programmes, places, and cities.

Unlike traditional statues and monuments in the street, which remain static, the Speaker ’sPlinths have been imagined as interactive platforms to voice people’s opinions as well as giving an opportunity to those who live in the margin to assume a voice in the shaping of their environment.

Ultimately, this project isn’t about the installations themselves – it’s about the conversations they introduce into these types of public settings. Take London’s Square for example, where the project was first sited: London’s financial hub where diverse discourse about public space is often absent or has only recently been brought into focus. The project demonstrates that even in spaces where public dialogue feels out of place, meaningful exchanges can still take root. Of course, architecture and design are just one piece of the puzzle, but what we are saying is that working in true collaboration can help create these shifts, one step at a time.

Urban Radicals hopes to offer a framework for rethinking how infrastructures of gathering might look like, how public space is used, who it belongs to, and how design can foster generosity, inclusivity, and civic participation. For us, these types of projects are an invitation to imagine cities where public life is deeply embedded in the design of our streets – where people feel a genuine sense of collective belonging in shared spaces and, by extension, engage more fully as citizens in the shaping of our urban and political environments.

Assembly’s inaugural street performanceby YAMATO Drummers, a renowned Japanese Taiko drumming group, brought an electrifying energy to the installation and launched the summer programme for the four pavilions with a bang.

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An Alternative Parliament for London, 2024

Programme: Four public assembly platforms across the City of London’s Square Mile
Client: London Festival of Architecture, The City of London Business Improvement Districts (Aldgate Connect, EC BID, Culture Mile BID and Fleet Street Quarter)
Architects: Urban Radicals
Consultants: Akt II (engineering), Millimetre, Steel&Form, Melior Design, APWDX, Inflate (fabrication)
Completion: 2024
Photographs: Luke O’Donnovan, Lorenzo Zandri and Urban Radicals

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Urban Radicals were featured in AA 447 ‘Europe: New Generation’, available on our e-shop.