BBC Radio 4 Design Competition, Listening Project Architecture Contest, News

BBC Radio 4 Listening Pod Competition

Mobile Recording Pod Architectural Contest, England, UK

13 Jun 2013

BBC Radio 4 Listening Pod Design Competition Winners

Result announced for the RIBA Design Challenge for a mobile recording ‘pod’ for BBC Radios 4’s The Listening Project

The RIBA is delighted to announce the successful team in the challenge to design a mobile recording ‘pod’ for BBC Radio 4’s The Listening Project as JaK Studio with Seymour Powell, Light IQ and Delicious Digital, London.

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The Judging Panel interviewed the three shortlisted teams on Wednesday 5 June to select the final successful design. The other shortlisted competitors were Patalab Architecture and Henry Williams with Max Fordham Engineers.

Keith Williams, RIBA Adviser commented: “The selected scheme is a wonderful fusion of sophisticated product design and wittily conceived caricature. Its typological familiarity as a caravan makes it easy to engage with, yet its external expression and strong identity mark out its special purpose as a transitory BBC studio. The project was the unanimous choice of the judges.”

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Tony Phillips, Commissioning Editor, BBC Radio 4 says: “All of the judges were struck by the wit and the warmth of the ‘speech bubble’ design. Combining familiarity, style and privacy, it chimed wonderfully with the spirit of The Listening Project. We believe we have an extraordinarily imaginative and distinctive new place for our audiences around the UK to record and share their conversations.”

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Jacob Low – Partner, JaK Studio commented: “We were deeply inspired by the Listening Project and searched to find a concept that could capture a nation in conversation. Our solution is a truly mobile recording studio shaped in the form of the humble ‘Speech Bubble’ to be filled with the stories of everyday people”’.

4 Jun 2013

BBC Radio 4 Listening Pod Design Competition

Shortlist announced for the RIBA Design Challenge for a mobile recording ‘pod’ for BBC Radios 4’s

The Listening Project

4 June 2013 – The RIBA is delighted to announce the shortlist for the challenge to design a mobile recording ‘pod’ for BBC Radio 4’s The Listening Project.

Over 80 designs were received from 13 countries all over the world. The judging panel, which included Fi Glover and Keith Williams acting as the RIBA Adviser, met to select the shortlist which is announced today as:

• Jak Studio with Seymour Powell, Light IQ and Delicious Digital, London
• Patalab Architecture, London
• Henry Williams with Max Fordham Engineers, London

The shortlisted teams will now be invited to interview and discuss their designs in more detail to select the final successful design later this week.

BBC Broadcasting House, London

photo © Adrian Welch

The selected design team will start working with the BBC immediately to have the finished pod ready for use around the UK by Autumn 2013.

Tony Phillips, Commissioning Editor, BBC Radio 4 commented: “My fellow panellists and I were hugely impressed by the range, the effort and the overall standard of the designs submitted, combining creative flair and technical precision as they did. Whittling them down to a shortlist of three proved to be extremely difficult, but it’s so exciting to think we are now so close to having a unique Radio 4 Listening Project pod to unveil to our listeners in the autumn. At the beginning of the year, Radio 4 announced its plans to bring the network’s arts and culture content to the fore; working with RIBA to commission a talented designer to create a Listening Project pod is a fitting embodiment of this commitment.”

BBC Broadcasting House Extension, London

photo © Adrian Welch

The Listening Project, presented by Fi Glover, is a Radio 4 initiative launched last year in partnership with BBC Local Radio and the Nations, in which people across the UK volunteer to record a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they’ve never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. The project has had an impact on many people’s lives already, as well as producing some truly memorable radio moments. Now it is getting ready to go on the road, travelling around the country to enable as many people as possible to become involved.

BBC Broadcasting House London

Location:BBC, London, England