London Architecture Biennale: A Knitted House

It’s Architecture Week AND London Architecture Biennale—don’t ask why they had to be at the same time… The Biennale kicked off with a Sheep Drive, 60 sheep being driven from Borough Market over the Millennium Bridge to Smithfield Market (the historic slaughterhouses—now meat market), herded by Lord Norman Foster, the king of architecture, to show links in food distribution. Adjacent was a fair with trendy, wonderful food and stalls. More architectural and high design than ecological; the highlight was the Knitting Site. Using a 2-storey high scaffold as a starting point, a group of women knitted the outside walls out of garbage bags, old plastic bags, and rope. They had met weekly to prepare, and continued on the day of the event, as the house unfolded before the crowd’s eyes. As they said: “Some people think that the act of building should be hidden behind screens, we like building site stuff - nets and ropes and scaffolding. We knit with them. And while some people think knitting is to remain behind walls, we build walls that are knitted. The knitting site is about bringing the backstage to the fore. We like the look of the mundane. Knitting triggers memory, some say. The knitting site is a device for remembering. Remembering the cloth fair, remembering ancient practices of making, remembering old ways of living”.