The closure was part of the public consultation on the longer term aim to turn the heavily trafficked road into a shared space and to create a ‘high street for culture’ providing improved access to the V&A, the Natural History and Science Museums, Imperial College and the National Geographic Society. Cllr Daniel Moylan was leading on the project for Kensington and Chelsea and chaired the local advisory group. The late Charles Knevitt of the RIBA Trust curated the event as well as the wider Kensington, Chelsea and Knightsbridge Hub.

 

The designs for Exhibition Road’s shared space had been drawn up by architects Dixon Jones but Moylan was concerned that powerful local residents might stymie the project just as the well-heeled residents of Chelsea had recently done to his plans to improve Sloane Square. Showing how a busy road could be transformed into a place for people would make a powerful statement in support of the project.

 

For the weekend Exhibition Road was filled with installations, musicians, food stalls, a ‘concrete canvas’ emergency shelter from Imperial College, abseiling acrobats on the museum’s facades, as well as a tent where people could learn more about the proposed changes to the street.

 

The most prominent installation was a conical structure by Foster and Partners, made up of hand-printedfabric panels. The tensile structure was hauled into place by the public. More than 4,000 visitors walked through the ten metre-high structure in the afternoon and its Bill Fontana sound installation. “The Festival was a great opportunity to bring architecture to a wide audience,” said Foster’s 

Alistair Lenczer. “The handprints placed on the fabric symbolised the human input into the structure's creation and Bill Fontana's maritime-themed sound work complemented the nautical feel of the rigging-type ropes that formed the cable net structure.”

 

The Exhibition Road Project got the go-ahead and was completed in time for the Olympics in 2012 - although early expectations that it would form part of the Marathon course were unrealised. The shared space is now permanent and, although it could do with some design tweaks, is a massive improvement on what was there before.