Sydney-based architect Andrew Burns has won a prestigious UK limited-invitation competition to transform a complex of London’s inner city laneways into the city’s newest park in collaboration with British landscape designer, Sarah Eberle.

The 85 metre long inner urban walk soon to become a permanent community gardens of potted plants, will be opened in June as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2012.

Last year, The Architecture Foundation, with Team London Bridge and Southwark Council, invited concepts from a shortlist of three Sydney-based architects calling for design concepts to improve a cut-through known as ‘Gibbon’s Rent’; asking to transform this site into a shared green space for use by local businesses, residents and general visitors to the London Bridge area. Today, Burns’ concept was announced as the winning design to be taken forward for the site.

This follows Andrew Burns’ recent unanimous selection from a large international field of leading architects to design the new AustraliaHouse gallery/complex in rural Japan, set to open as part of the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale in late July 2012.

Andrew Burns Architects will work closely with award-winning British landscape designer, Sarah Eberle, to realize the Gibbon’s Rent transformation, which is scheduled for completion by 23 June 2012.

Andrew Burns said:

“I am excited by the prospect of collaborating with Sarah Eberle, and working closely with The Architecture Foundation, Team London Bridge and Southwark Council to deliver the project. Sarah Eberle is one of the UK’s leading landscape designers and together- we can deliver something memorable. I’m honoured to collaborate.

The Gibbon’s Rent project has been conceived as a place of the people, a garden of pots, based on a clearly designed ‘harlequin’ geometry with plants located outside the grid encouraging passers to move through, pause, and investigate this forgotten space in London.”

Sarah Eberle said:

"I am so delighted to be involved in the transformation of this 'everyday space' in the heart of London. It is a project that everyone can relate to and I believe will become an example of community and business collaboration. It has sprung from the seed of an idea and already grown to be an exciting and innovative contribution to this special year in London.”

A base of larger and small plants will be installed to give the garden structure, with the public, local schools, residents, businesses and local associations invited to contribute their own plantings and pots. The concept is inspired by wide ranging examples of similar spontaneous activities in cities around the world in particular the laneways of Sydney and Japanese alleys.

“We are seeking the intersection between design refinement and community engagement, and the project will create a framework which the community will embellish and bring to life,” Burns said.

Central to the Gibbon’s Rent garden design is Andrew Burns’ passionate commitment to architecture as a means of shaping how we live. It is envisaged that the garden can be a focus for summer and winter feasts, festivals and markets, drawing members of the community together to celebrate the changing seasons.

‘This garden extends our focus as a practice on developing, socially engaged processes that go beyond the everyday to explore how we relate to our contemporary world, and build communities,” Burns said.

“Beyond the concrete surfaces, masonry walls and steel framed structures, people — whether they live in Tokyo, Sydney or London - long for planting, vegetation, the softness of landscape and the visual relief of a garden. They also want to contribute, to participate, beyond the things they own themselves — to get their hands deep in soil. A garden of pots creates an immediate opportunity for all of that, and more, to happen,” he added.

The Gibbon’s Rent garden is conceived as a permanent public realm intervention. The space will be animated through activities and events planned to coincide with two overarching cultural programmes: Cityscapes, part of the Chelsea Fringe, and the London Festival of Architecture 2012.

Sarah Ichioka, Director, The Architecture Foundation said: “It is a core part of The Architecture Foundation’s mission to improve the quality of the built environment, and the Gibbon’s Rent transformation will do just that, making

a positive, playful, and permanent contribution to this hitherto neglected corner of London.”

This project is made possible through the generous support of Team London Bridge, Southwark Council, The Peter De Haan Charitable Trust, NSW Architects Registration Board, and Farebrother Chartered Surveyors.