On the 10th July, Surface to Air launched the campaign, headed by Jack Pringle, to Re-Build the Skylon with an exhibition of a 300ft projection of the Skylon on the Shell building, situated on the Southbank.
The Skylon was a 300 ft tower - an architectural and engineering marvel designed for the Festival of Britain in 1951 by two young architects Jacko Moya and Philip Powell still in their twenties, of Powell and Moya Architects. The architects' design was made structurally elegant and minimal by the brilliant engineer Felix Samuely. With a base 40 feet from the ground and the top nearly 300 feet high - the Skylon was more sculpture than building and floated like an up-ended airship above the South Bank. Dramatic by day, Skylon was even more radical, luminescent and exciting at night.
The Skylon became an icon for a new era in British history, and is the first example of high-tech architecture in the UK. Its innovative form has inspired some of the greatest of our UK architects over the past 60 years (Powell and Moya went on to establish a successful practice and won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Architecture).
Until now, only historic photographs could remind us of the extraordinary vision of the Skylon (it was demolished in 1952). But now, Jack Pringle is leading a campaign to re-build the Skylon for 2011 - the 60th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain which we have been asked to run.
We have an open view on where it should be located. We have had expressions of interest from a number of interested parties. Key potential locations would be its original home on the Southbank, Battersea Gardens (this has particular relevance as it was the home of the second site of the Festival of Britain), Battersea Power Station (Powell and Moya Architects also designed Churchill gardens, the listed social housing complex which face Battersea Power Station),City Hall, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Cambridge.
We intend to re-build the Skylon as it was originally constructed. However, the illumination of the Skylon both internally and externally would be new and contemporary.
The public can for where they would like to see the Skylon rebuilt on www.rebuildtheskylon.com. You can select up to three locations for where you would like to see it built. If you have a location in mind that we haven’t shown, please send us an email and let us know.
