Potential designers have around a fortnight left to submit their plans for a new pavilion for Woking’s Lightbox centre . Pic © Peter Cook
New figures released by the co-ordinators of a contest to design a new pavilion for Woking’s Lightbox centre have revealed intense competition for the £50,000 project.
More than 500,000 hits from 64 countries have been recorded on the project website since it was launched in December last year, and 60 architects and designers vied for attention at a recent workshop explaining the building process for the space.
“This competition has attracted a higher than usual interest, which we attribute to a slowing down of activity within the professional design practices,” said Jimmy MacDonald, Director of organisers Tent London. The company says the level of interest is three times higher than the number accumulated by similar schemes previously.
“This is also one structure that professionals know will be built thanks to the generous £50,000 funding from The Lightbox," he added.
The semi-permanent, 35 square metre Art Fund Pavilion will be built with half of the £100,000 prize awarded to The Lightbox when it won the Art Fund Prize 2008.
“When we established this award we hoped it would stimulate interest from designers, but hardly imagined that it would receive this kind of global recognition,” admitted Director Marilyn Scott, who has spotted visitors sizing up the building and taking photographs of the courtyard ahead of potential bids.
“It is also wonderful that professionals take The Lightbox seriously and want to be involved with our award-winning building.”
A panel including Wayne Hemingway and Turner Prize-nominated sculptor Richard Wilson will judge the winning design, which will be launched at the London Design Festival in September and installed in the courtyard in May 2010.
The deadline for competition applications is March 3, 2009. Entry to the competition is free. Visit www.www.artfundpavilion.co.uk
