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From golden cement lions to crazy paving facades, from Corinthian columns to pebbledash galore, a new show is celebrating 100 years of gaudy, surreal additions to the London council estate
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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the selection of nimtim architects with artist Katie Schwab for the Becontree Estate’s public realm commission. Looking to redesign 12 neglected and underused corner plots across the estate, the project reimagines these areas as new civic squares in East London.
On the centenary of the estate, RIBA in collaboration with Create London and London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) is celebrating Becontree’s past and reimagining its future. Six emerging and mid-career architectural practices were invited to propose a way to make neglected corner plots of the estate more valuable spaces for the community, a brief developed in conversation with the community.
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Nimtim Architects’ winning proposal for Becontree Estate
Nimtim Architects has won an RIBA competition to reimagine neglected areas of the Becontree Estate in east London.
The agenda-setting project was built 100 years ago as part of the garden city movement and became the largest municipal housing estate in the world with 26,000 homes and, at one point, 100,000 people on four square miles of land in Barking & Dagenham.
The public realm contest is part of a series of centenary celebrations which will also see two exhibitions mounted at the RIBA’s headquarters on Portland Place this autumn.
Nimtim, working with artist Katie Schwab, beat a shortlist featuring Okra Studio, Studio Aki with Hayhurst and Co, the Resolve Collective and Studio Gil with Tisserin Engineers.