Winners revealed for The People’s Pavilion 2023

The public votes have been counted and the winning design has been revealed for the People’s Pavilion 2023. Roots of Heritage, designed by team Cultural Maze, consisting of Bruno De Marco (18), Tomi Balogun (18), and Zhané Phillips’ (18), won over the public with their pavilion concept design.?

The three young aspiring architects and designers from the East London Borough of Tower Hamlets designed their pavilion to be made of renewable and recycled materials, as was their exhibition model which the public voted on.?

One of the main features of the pavilion design is to allow for anonymous messages to activate the pavilion, with visitors invited to write things down they wish to share but may have never said aloud. These notes will be collected overtime as a time capsule to be read and talked about as a community.The idea of their sheltering tree design stems from the fact that Tower Hamlets is one of the largest London boroughs with the most integrated cultures, where diversity and community are a strong focus. The tree represents the growth as a borough and the branches that connect their community.?

The team will not only see their pavilion design brought to life in the grounds of Lea Bridge Library in Leyton, but they have won an all expenses study trip to the opening of the Venice Biennale.?

Emma Appleford-John , Head of Libraries and Registrars at The London Borough of Waltham Forest said,?

“Waltham Forest and Lea Bridge library are thrilled to participate in the People's Pavilion initiative. The recent expansion of the Edwardian Grade-II listed Lea Bridge library, featuring a design by Studio Weave, demonstrates how intelligent architecture can have a positive impact on our local communities and the environment. Congratulations to the winning team, we feel honoured to be able to showcase the winning pavilion in our new garden at Lea Bridge library.”

The young team said, "The People’s Pavilion competition has truly been a one-of-a-kind experience, we have been able to learn from industry professionals about what it truly means to be a designer and have also had the pleasure to practice it ourselves. The experience from working with the team to meeting and learning from new people has been just as rewarding as the prize. Many thanks to the team at Beyond The Box for making opportunities like these available and accessible, we look forward to spreading our message of care and culture to others.’"

The People’s Pavilion, run by Creative Practice Beyond The Box CIC, delivered weekend workshops across seven East London boroughs, culminating in one team being shortlisted to represent each of the seven East London boroughs during a Design Development week in February half term, the young aspiring designers worked with the project's industry collaborators to process their concept ideas. Team Cultural Maze was supported by David Chipperfield Architects and Price & Myers .

The programme will now move to the second phase, with Beyond The Box working in partnership with SCALE RULE , Re-Fabricate and newly formed architectural practice Saqqra to develop the designs in collaboration with the young people.

Saqqra said, “Congratulations to team Cultural Maze on their winning concept! We’re looking forward to working with them and the wider team on bringing their design to life“?

Neil Onions , Founding Director of Beyond The Box CIC said, “Huge congratulations to the winning team and to all the young participants, we have been genuinely blown away by their talent and their consideration for the planet and the natural world. With over 2,250 people engaging in public voting, it just goes to show the appetite and desire to see more spaces designed and built by young people”.?

Each of the young people who participated in the programme will now be able to access a wide variety of industry opportunities working in collaboration with Beyond The Box programme sponsors and the young cultural producers who we have employed will work to programme a festival to take place at the Pavilion.

Neil said, “We have also launched the People’s Pavilion New Founders Programme, working with diverse led practices: including Our Space, consisting of Part I architectural graduates Daniel K Poku-Davies and Max Mackay . 1:100 Architecture Podcast comprised of seven architectural graduates, women of colour & seekers of change in the realm of architecture, and BOLD , led by Part 2 architecture graduate Chun-Li Reid we will be working with as part of the ‘cooking with an architect’ series, based in community focused and sustainable kitchen across East London”.

The Pavilion will be built in July and open in time for the Summer holidays, with the festival running over two weeks.?

Congratulations to all those involved. You can visit the website to see who took second and third prize.