We are looking for funding to construct a pavilion that sets out to educate, stimulate and challenge people’s perceptions on London’s housing crisis. It will be a meeting place, a stage and a platform for people to meet, speak and investigate the issues that are so pertinent and sharp today. The pavilion is a facilitator and agitator for the true work which must be undertaken in order to foster change. We are creating a programme of events that will run over the course of the London Design Festival, this will include panel discussions, lectures, debates, film screenings and performances that straddle such issues as; the inequality of space provision in the city, homelessness, overcrowding, empty homes, social housing, architectural design, environments and space standards for housing. We want to help bring the issues of the space gap to the fore. We’re asking for £8,000 to build and run the events and exhibitions. Please help us make this happen!

What we'll deliver:

• Construct the Space Gap Pavilion in front of Kensington Olympia for London Design Festival 2018
• Organise a series of talks and debates that address the disparity of space allocation in London and UK
• Programme a series of film-screenings and performances by filmmakers and artists whose work explores the housing crisis
• Exhibit and present new initiatives that tackle pressing issues such as homelessness and affordable housing

Why it's a great idea:

We want to bring this discussion to the forefront of London Design Festival 2018. We aim to bring together people with first-hand experience of these issues and those with a responsibility to enact change. We are engaging with social workers within local authorities, their clients who are forced into overcrowded living conditions, artists and filmmakers investigating all of the above issues in a variety of different media and as well as charities working within the realm of homelessness and provision of housing, we are expanding the conversation to designers, developers, policy makers and the wider public. The design of the pavilion is formed by aggregating these stories to make a city-scape. Each volume describes the space allocated to a person or group of people, the seating indicates the scale of a person and the structure of the pavilion denotes the inhabitants of that space. Through talks, debates, performances, and exhibitions seeks to express the disparity present in our city.

Steps to get it done:

• Buying construction materials for the pavilion
• Fabricating the seating elements of the pavilion off site
• Assembling and erecting the pavilion on site
• Opening the pavilion with the first panel discussion

Our aim is to draw people’s attention to the implications of this disparity: reflecting and educating on the current housing crisis, the affordability of space within the city, the class stratification of the UK, and homelessness in its many forms. The pavilion sets out to reveal, through dialogue, the mechanisms which find these situations arising and challenge the assumptions that lay behind what has become the prevalent culture in the current housing system. We want to open the discussion to the public and explore existing and new solutions that tackle London's housing crisis. The immersive pavilion space and it's events will run during London Design Festival and will be located on the main plaza outside Kensington Olympia in Kensington. We already have a strong list of confirmed partners and participants, and the list is growing. Please visit our facebook page: www.facebook.com/events/256301941625831 London Design Festival event page: www.londondesignfestival.com/event/space-gap