A 65ft-high cardboard tower and a virtual reality swing that makes people feel like they are flying are among the attractions planned for an outdoor celebration of the capital’s architecture.
Fantastic Feats: The Building Of London will include more than 50 events over six months, mixing theatre, music and art.
In a special commission, French artist Olivier Grossetête is taking over Guildhall Yard in the City for two days in July. He specialises in making monumental cardboard box constructions with the help of hundreds of volunteers and dozens of rolls of sticky tape — and then destroying them.
Other installations include Volo: dreams of flight by engineer and designer Brendan Walker. He aims to hang four swings from trees and to rig them out with virtual reality headsets that will make the wearers feel like they are in one of a series of flying machines invented by Leonardo da Vinci. The Renaissance master is credited with developing early ideas for aircraft including a Helical Air Screw regarded as a prototype helicopter.
Mr Walker, who has helped develop rides at attractions including Alton Towers and Disneyland, said: “When you lift your feet off the ground a whole new world opens up to you and depending how high you swing it will propel you through this world in different ways. If you really let yourself go it really will feel like you’re flying.”
Acrobats, dancers and musicians will team up for a performance of Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick in Guildhall Yard where they will take apart a ship and transform it into the whale of the title.
Also taking part are landmarks including Tower Bridge which will become home to a trio of peep show boxes revealing some of the alternative designs submitted for the bridge when it was first planned in the 19th century.
The festival runs across the city from May 31 to December 1
