Last time it was cows, this time it’s sheep. I’m not talking about an agricultural show, but about the London Architecture Biennale, which begins today when Lord Foster will be herding sheep across the Millennium Bridge towards Smithfield Market. In 2004 it was cows approaching Smithfield from the opposite direction, down St John Street, and, appropriately, across Cowcross Street.
Peter Murray, the director of the Biennale, has a knack for eye-catching publicity and, since his earliest student magazine productions in the 1960s, has worked tirelessly to make architecture less boring. It is hard to think of anyone more dedicated to communicating what is still seen as a difficult and unpopular subject, and the Biennale runs back-to-back with the longer-established Architecture Week, until 25 June.
Architecture Week is a national event, but even the sum total of its London events combined with the Biennale’s is staggering: some earnest, some frivolous, but all more or less adapted to attract people not normally interested in architecture.
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