The Festival of Britain 2022 is happening… Studio BI has been appointed by the UK government to design and curate a series of pavilions showcasing the best of Britain.

The site for the festival is an iconic relic of the Brighton seafront – the West Pier. As the site is inaccessible, the students employed a variety of tactics to study the pier. First off, the studio braved the choppy waters and took a boat out to the pier to get up close to the dilapidated iron structure. The boat trip, coupled with drawings from the archives, allowed the students to gather together enough information to successfully produce a computer model of the pier, a vital tool used by all the students throughout the year.

Working as a collective and learning from your peers is at the core of Broadcast Industries. To bring this ethos into practice, the students took part in a series of ‘master planning’ workshops. These workshops focussed on how the students collaborate with each other to design and coordinate the festival. Each student put forward an argument and rationale for their location on the pier and a festival was taking shape.

The studio also focussed on sustainability issues surrounding festivals. Our students are well informed and conscious of the impact building has on our environment. Therefore, what happens to the pavilions after the festival is as integral as to what happens during the event.

The output from the year has brought together an eclectic mix of pavilions that showcase the diverse attitudes and personal interests of the students. From protest pavilions on the environment to temporary laboratories for cancer research; from wild swimming in the sea to immersive dining experiences; from creating chalk sculptures to fashion pavilions. It’s fair to say The Festival of Britain has it all. See you in 2022!

The following are examples of work produced by the studio in 2019/20.