LD151 illuminates Foster + Partners LGBTQ+ pride pop-up!
16th Sep 2021

On Friday 10th September Foster + Partners unveiled its winning ‘Rainbow after the storm’ pride pop-up structure, at a launch party held against the dramatic back drop of St Annes Church in the heart of Soho, London. 

Organised alongside the London Festival of Architecture, the competition was instigated by Architecture LGBTQ+ & Guy Piper Architects, with the challenge of designing a structure to represent LGBTQ+ pride and the NHS. 

The pop-up installation will be open to the public from 11th-26th September and demonstrates how architecture can bring communities together to celebrate pride and acceptance of diversity. 

Constructed from coloured rope and a light-weight timber frame, ‘Rainbow after the storm’ was cleverly imagined by the following group of early-career architects at Foster + Partners; Tyler Thurston, Katia Egiziano, Melinda de Wet, Elisabetta Della Vedova, Alessandra Sonvico, Samantha McDougall, Jorge Gomez Bernal, Rupert Inman, George Goldsmith, Mrinal Rammohan, Anna Griesi, Andres Gonzalez, Angel Garcia, Hamza Farooq, Nathan Langdon, Amy Burruss and Hannah Gasparutti.

Tyler Thurston, a member of the team at Foster + Partners who worked on the project, explained what winning the competition meant for the team: “We are delighted to have won the Pride pop-up design competition, a project that reflects our shared beliefs on inclusivity, diversity, and togetherness. We saw it as an opportunity to explore how architecture can make a positive contribution to society and serve as a beacon of light in times of adversity.”

The launch party was originally timed to coincide with the famous London Pride Festival on September 10th which was unfortunately cancelled. Nonetheless members of the architecture community came together for a night of celebrations, as the full extent of the design came to life. 

One of the main principles of the design was to use recycled and sustainable materials, LightGraphix were delighted to supply re-used, high-power, LD151’s, to dramatically uplight the magnificent structure and ensure that it has just as powerful an impact at night, during the day. 

We believe strongly in the circular economy of a products life, so if a customer sends back a fitting for refurbishment or repair, then as standard we will offer to supply the fitting back to the customer for refit, but if not, we will make use of the fitting or parts elsewhere on projects or for samples. Being able to replace the light engines in our products means that we can update them with the latest LED technology and give them a new lease of life, guaranteed to L90B5 at 90,000 hours. 

The lighting design team at Foster + Partners, Wolfgang Muller, Laura Suico, Jade Baker, Valeria Surrente, Carolina Rossi, Giovanni Gasco and Carlo Pedata, came up with an innovative solution as to affix the luminaires to the bottom of each timber frame. This meant that the super low-glare output reached the top of the structure, highlighting each of the colourful ropes whilst not interfering with the visual comfort of visitors inside and outside the installation.   

Laura Suico, Senior Lighting Designer, Foster + Partners, said: “Rainbow After The Storm has been an extremely collaborative project and the outcome reflects the creativity, shared belief and passion of the team. The project has been a great opportunity to explore how the medium of light can be a key element in creating a powerful immersive experience, enhancing and transforming spaces at night-time.”