On June 26 Therme Art Program hosted an edition of its Art and Architecture workshop series in London, UK with 2019 Serpentine Pavilion architect Junya Ishigami (as featured in Dezeen) and celebrated architect Arthur Mamou-Mani.

Set within Ishigami’s Serpentine Pavilion on the grounds of London’s Serpentine Gallery, the first portion of the workshop focused on challenging ideas of contemporary art and architecture emphasizing their potential in reframing the ways we plan and build our cities.

Ishigami discussed his ‘free space’ philosophy in which he seeks harmony between man-made structures and those existing in nature. During the workshop, Ishigami elaborated on how this philosophy would shape his ideal city into one that provided “quiet,” “darkness of night” and “less density.”

During the second segment of the workshop at Somerset House, London-based architect Arthur Mamou-Mani introduced his next architectural project Catharsis. Built from sustainable materials, Catharsis is a complex camp structure that designed to function as a communal gathering space at Burning Man 2019. For his camp design, Mamou-Mani contemplated and incorporated Burning Man’s ten principles, which include radical self-expression, communal effort and civic participation.

How do people become active participants in their city? How do we sustainably co-exist with nature? For Mamou-Mani Catharsis is a testing ground for these imperative questions in his architectural practice.