NL- The Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space in London will exhibit a special project by dRMM as the central project in the Dutch contribution to The International Showcase during the London Festival of Architecture 2010.

An innovative exhibition and a series of events focusing on dRMM’s ‘de Ark’ project will take place in the NL space in Riding House Street, W1 during the festival and continuing into the summer. It will be complemented by a series of events, presentations and discussions that locate the project within the broader context of contemporary architecture and the relationships between architecture and water, a familiar thematic in Dutch architectural practice for numerous reasons, some obvious and some less so.

About de Ark

dRMM is becoming well known globally for provocative, lateral original design solutions to familiar problems, and for pioneering architecture of cross-laminated timber.

Based on a growing and international project base, dRMM’s 10 year plan and need for larger design studio space deliberately coincides with a long-held ambition to demonstrate creative use of the River Thames.

Using a working 62 x 6.6m Dutch barge as a floating host structure, dRMM will install and inhabit a 3-storey (including roof deck) 450m2 laminated timber prefabricated ‘cargo’. The ship will remain a working vessel offering autonomy, mobility and services, the studio an elegant removable building…a wooden box in a steel ship.

Alex de Rijke, founding director of dRMM, says “ ‘de Ark’ will not only serve dRMM’s own needs for studios, workshop, cafe and sports, but will also offer a 150m2 event space within a spectacular pneumatic roof structure. de Ark can thus engage with and contribute to cultural programmes in UK and Northern Europe, being capable of visiting most cities on water.”

dRMM is a London-based practice that has gained increasing recognition for its innovative practice and designs with low environmental impact, most recently evidenced in a recent 2010 RIBA Award for its design for Clapham Manor Primary School.

Opening Wed 23 June, 18:00 to 21:00