Located in the heart of London, Regent Street is one of the world’s leading lifestyle and shopping destinations and will be home to Trace by Architecture Social Club from 15 to 23 September 2018 for the London Design Festival.
Trace is a suspended installation designed to draw the viewer’s attention to the power of the natural environment as it interacts with the built environment. Regent Street, named after the Prince Regent, was built under the direction of the architect John Nash and its Grade II listed facades represent some of the most distinguished architecture in London. The iconic curve of the street and height of its impressive Regency buildings means Regent Street has its own unique wind patterns.
Reacting to light and wind, the installation renders the invisible visible, by harnessing the street’s wind power and changing light over the course of the day and night to prompt the viewer to consider their own effects on the environments which they inhabit. Rippling movements and hypnotic rhythms create the sense of a living and breathing ecosystem – one that points towards a positive future where sustainable living and working is ubiquitous and beautiful.
Through its shape and orientation, Trace encourages the viewer to look upwards to the rooftops of Regent Street. Its materials and swarm-like form hint at rooftop allotments, the habitat of honey bees: natural habitats that exist in the most urban of locations.