An Alternative Parliament for London
For the 20th anniversary of the London Festival of Architecture, URBAN RADICALS re-imagined alternative parliament typologies and forms. Four public assembly platforms across the City of London, aimed to make the idea of the parliament accessible to a diverse audience, prompting Londoners to actively engage in shaping the city’s discourse, while celebrating the multiplicities which exist in Square Mile’s vibrant streets.
Historically focused on trade and guilds, Square Mile has been both a financial and cultural hub for London. UR’ vision expanded the concept of a “square” to include public squares, markets, and gatherings, transforming Square Mile into a place for public discussion, knowledge exchange, gathering and ultimately a place for all.
Urban Radicals’ Street Assemblies unfolded in four scales and forms to facilitate conversations from everyday interactions, to organised debates and performances:
(1) SPEAKER’S PLINTH: A single person platform for voicing individual opinions.
(2) VOICING POD: An intimate space for conversations and podcast-style broadcasts, ideal for two people.
(3) ROUNDTABLE: A twelve- person gathering spot for shared meals and discussions.
(4) PUBLIC ASSEMBLY A small auditorium accommodating up to 40 people for workshops, talks, screenings and gatherings.
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.
Drawing from historical references like the ancient Greek Agora’s ‘Exedra’, Aristotle’s peripatetic walks, and the use of the plinth to elevate the woman figure in the 1848 Paris Revolution, the project invites us to think who we elevate on the plinth for public discourse.
The design and construction of the plinths is rooted in street aesthetics, signage and counterculture. The forms double up as skateboarding ramps, allowing the structures to be gifted to communities of South London as play and skateboarding elements after their temporary life in the City.
By merging functional elements of skateboarding infrastructure with platforms for public engagement, Urban Radicals wanted to guarantee an afterlife for these temporary structures for self-build communities in London that are working with very limited budgets.
Speaker’s Plinths have now been permanently re-homed at Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) Self-Build Community Space in Ladywell, Lewisham.
RUSS is a pioneering community land trust, dedicated to building sustainable, affordable homes and public spaces through community self-build projects. The Church Grove development is London’s largest community-led housing project, offering 36 homes with a mix of tenures, including social rent and London Living Rent. These homes are co-designed and self-built by future residents, embodying RUSS’ commitment to creating truly affordable, community-driven housing.
Speaker’s Plinths, re-imagined as part of a new public playground, are being co-designed by residents of Ladywell and Unit 38 — a design collective known for their playful and participatory approach to architecture. The playground sits alongside the residential project, continuing the plinths’ legacy of public gatherings and community exchange.
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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.
Inspired by the functional aesthetics of its host building, MEP systems around it, the pod suggests that these intimate interventions are worth considering as buildings, often facilitating important programme to the street, adding cultural and aesthetic value to the shared urban environments.
Constructed from timber and clad in natural cork for its acoustic and thermal insulation properties, the Voicing Pod was designed to deliver an acoustically insulated interior for podcast conversations and live radio broadcasts from the street. On its exterior, CNC-cut cork panels carried a mini pin-up exhibition by architect and writer Leela Keshav entitled ‘Stories of Seeds and Migration’, which explored themes of cultural identity, migration and belonging through the lens of plants and weeds that one finds in London’s Square Mile.
Urban Radicals created the Voicing Pod to raise awareness (via radio broadcasts and podcasts) about the less obvious public spaces in London, such as rooftop gardens and the underbellies of buildings. These areas may not seem like part of the public realm, yet Section 106 mandates that private buildings provide 10-25% of their ground footprint for public use. The Voicing Pod is located in one of these spaces, beneath the Lloyd’s building. Throughout the Square Mile, many legally mandated public spaces exist as rooftop gardens or viewing galleries, which are not immediately apparent to the public.
Following its successful run at the Lloyd’s Building, the Voicing Pod has now been permanently re-homed at Cody Dock, a creative community hub along the River Lea in Newham. There, the pod continues its mission of amplifying diverse voices and facilitating public conversations. It remains accessible for anyone to visit and can even be booked for podcast recordings.
This new location allows the Voicing Pod to maintain its role as a free public broadcasting station in the city, while contributing to the cultural fabric of Cody Dock and Newham.
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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.
Inspired by historical forms of debate, such as UK’s first recorded ‘parliament’ under Parliament Oak, an ancient oak tree which still exists in Sherwood Forest, and more contemporaries such as the round table in the UN’s Security Council Chamber in Norway; it promotes horizontality and democratic participation.
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.
Its design encourages casual social interactions, while also generating a spatial dynamic which makes the act of sitting alongside other people inherently performative.
Materially, the Roundtable is constructed from off-the-shelf industrial components such as steel - mesh, later painted, as well as concrete drainage pipes for the legs, which are in-turn inhabited with a selection of trees, symbolising London’s diverse cultures.
Benches, reminiscent of telegraph poles, add to the street-like language, while the planting and painting, soften the industrial raw materials, their circular arrangement plays with the familiar and informal campfire format, contrasting its corporate urban surroundings and fostering the sense of a communal, welcoming gathering space.
Over the summer, the Roundtable hosted a diverse programme of public events that fostered participation and interaction, ranging from artistic workshops to public debates on politics.
The street, as a public stage, allows for genuine diversity and knowledge exchange when it becomes a truly democratic and inclusive space for all. What made these events particularly special was their open- air setting in the square, which invited passersby to stop, listen, or join in—engaging people who might not have otherwise known about or attended the events.
After its time in the City of London, the Roundtable has found a permanent home at Cody Dock in Newham. This extraordinary community hub along the River Lea offers a fitting location for the Roundtable, which remains free and open for anyone to visit.
As part of Cody Dock’s and Open City’s events, the Roundtable continues
to host debates, discussions, and celebrations, fulfilling its role as a space for community engagement and public discourse.
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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.
Designed as a space for public debates, performances, screenings, and gatherings, the project draws inspiration from spaces of political power like the House of Commons and civic squares, including the Piazza della Signora in Florence, famously depicted by Giuseppe Zocchi as a space for political speech, exchange, and even confrontation.
With an understanding of the spatialities of politics and debate, Assembly aimed to bring democratic processes into the City and its street. The form is therefore a unified horseshoe bench below an inflatable canopy, fostering a sense of community and deliberation.
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.
The auditorium is made from simple plywood, hiding the ballast required to counteract the inflatable canopy’s uplift, fastened on a lightweight aluminium frame. The canopy provides shelter from the rain while creating a festival-like atmosphere.
The zebra-painted legs and references to street language and crossings integrate Assembly into the city’s visual language, turning the street into a stage for political and civic engagement.
Urban Radicals aimed to challenge traditional notions of how, where and by whom democratic processes take place. Assembly suggests a different kind of politics—one rooted in the commons, the open and the immediate. The structure imagines citizens’ assemblies and decision- making processes happening out in the public realm, in full view of all, within the street.
By situating these assemblies in the streets, the project considers the ancient Agora, where exchange of both goods and ideas occurred in a horizontal, flexible manner. It embodies an adaptable, plug-in architecture, opening itself up to different perspectives and inviting participation from all who pass by.
