2007  City  Demos  project   

During my internship at Demos, a London based thinktank, I helped out on the Bristol Urban Beach project. With the help of 800 tons of sand, some deckchairs and a stage, a ran-down carpark got transformed in a temporary urban beach. The beach was an experiment after the publication "People make places". More than a place, the beach was a platform: access was free and there were a lot of events going on, both organised by Demos and the people of Bristol. To support this, we created a website where people could announce their yoga-classes or exchange pictures.

The beach made all of us think about the value and possibilities of public space, putting pressure on the developer of the site to focus more on the public realm. The Architect’s Journal, a leading independent architecture magazine, wrote an article on the Bristol Urban Beach. It praised the influence of the Urban Beach project on the future development of Redcliffe Wharf, an iconic site steeped in history.
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