The LFA and Network Rail have revealed the six teams shortlisted for the ‘Curating Concourses’ competition, which will see a prototype design for a new exhibition concept installed at London’s Euston Station this summer.
Emerging architects, designers, artists and curators were invited to submit creative ideas for an exhibition display that can communicate content in fresh, engaging and accessible ways, starting with Network Rail’s Design Guidance Series. The project explores how innovative exhibition concepts could help establish stations as community hubs, by transforming currently underused spaces into opportunities for learning and engagement.
The competition attracted an exciting selection of entries from a range of design disciplines. Each shortlisted team offered a unique response to the competition brief in their expression of interest, demonstrating ambition when it comes to the potential of exhibitions as learning tools and emphasising the importance of local community engagement when tackling the changing role of stations in our cities. The shortlisted teams will now each be awarded an honorarium to develop their initial written responses into design proposals over the coming weeks.
The shortlisted teams and designers are:
1. Bamidele Awoyemi, Farouk Agoro & Livia Wang
Bamidele, Farouk & Livia are a collective of designers and artists living and working in South London, with an ambition to collaborate with different groups, specialists, and communities in their projects. Despite practising and sharing backgrounds in architecture, much of their work has crossed into disciplines of art, film, exhibition, education, and curation.
Editional Studio is run by architects Jo Sharples and Jack Richards. Working from their high-street shop in Manchester, the team promote approachable, sustainable design directly to the community. For the Curating Concourses competition, their aim is to bring the travelling exhibition to life for the diverse public that train stations provide for.
Founded in 2020, Everyday Fictions is the collaborative practice of Jack Bardwell, Richard Fussey and Emilie Loiseleur, based in London and the Netherlands. Combining their experience in designing spaces, exhibitions and installations for cultural institutions and communities, the team use spatial design and performance to speculate on other realities and initiate public discourse.
Based in London, Mark and Cristina are a design duo currently working at We Made That, who have recently started collaborating on personal projects. Their work is socially engaged and participatory, looking to create more equitable spaces.
5. Muslim Women in Architecture (MWA)
Muslim Women in Architecture (MWA) is a collective based between London, Dubai, Toronto and Doha, working to empower, inspire and celebrate Muslim women in the architecture and built environment industry. It is a safe space for underrepresented Muslim women to gain control of their narratives and start a conversation around the inequality and adversity they regularly face. Through their platform, the collective encourages an open discussion amongst those within the profession and outside, in hopes to bring positive change in the industry.
Founded by Boji Hu and Ya Liu in 2019, Project Poché is a multi-disciplinary design practice based in London and Shenzhen. The studio engages in architecture, public realm projects and small-scale interventions. The team values a research-centred approach and keeps its flexibility, creativity and openness through extensive collaborations.
By offering creative and engaging display solutions, the competition aims to enhance passenger experiences in railway stations, testing how the future of exhibitions in stations might look. Building upon this, the winning prototype has the potential to be relocated to other Network Rail managed stations for future exhibitions, with flexible and adjustable components to suit different sites and content.
The competition is being judged by an expert panel including Anthony Dewar (Network Technical Head Buildings and Architecture, Network Rail), Frank Anatole (principal architect, Network Rail), Francesca Perry (Editor, ICON Magazine), Dinah Casson (Co-founder and Director, Casson Mann), Jason Bruges (Jason Bruges Studio) and Tamsie Thomson (Managing Director, New London Architecture).
Rosa Rogina, Programme Director at LFA, said:
“We’re proud to be working alongside Network Rail in our mission to support and champion emerging talent, by providing opportunities like this to transform the public’s experience of a mainline London station. We’ve been delighted to see such a diverse range of multi-disciplinary entries to the competition, and the shortlisted teams impressed us all with their ambition and enthusiasm for the curatorial and community impact of this project. As the teams now start working on their designs, I’m really looking forward to seeing each concept take shape ahead of the next stage of the competition.”
Once the six shortlisted teams have developed their exhibition design concept for final judging, the winning team will be selected to deliver, manufacture and install their exhibition display. Visuals of the winning design will be revealed in May, ahead of the exhibition design being officially unveiled at Euston Station as part of the London Festival of Architecture this June.
