Urban Salon and Bump to take on Space Invaders

Urban Salon has designed the British Council’s international touring exhibition Space Invaders, which showcases 15 of the UK’s most creative architectural groups and kicks off at the Experimentadesign 2001 biennale in Lisbon on 22 September.

Urban Salon took part in a paid creative pitch along with KRD, A2 Graphics, NB Studios and Bump in a paid creative pitch about four months ago. Urban Salon is one of the 15 groups exhibiting. Bump won the graphic side of the project. The total budget for the design of the exhibition is £120 000, but the British Council refuses to break it down into specific fees.

The exhibition is designed to demonstrate the vitality of a new wave of British innovators, according to the British Council.

‘Architecture as a creative profession has been revolutionised by an increasing engagement with local and urban global culture and its tactics are more and more those that work in the visual arts, graphic design, advertising and art direction,’ says co-curator Lucy Bullivant.

Space Invaders will feature a selection of international projects. It is split into four thematic areas, including the influence of the everyday or ‘popular culture’ and visions of the future.

The exhibition’s layout is designed to highlight the diverse interests and personalities of the architectural groups. It includes video interviews with directors of the groups to give ‘a unique insight into each group’s creative world’. The video interviews have been produced by Milk Communications, and a custom-made exhibit expresses ‘their philosophy and way of working’.

It also features photographs, drawings, sketches, visualisations, computer-aided design images, video clips of the development of architectural images and models.