In a city defined by centuries of institutional architecture, Urban Radicals present a bold, decentralized vision of democracy: An Alternative Parliament for London. Conceived for the 20th anniversary of the London Festival of Architecture, this project disperses civic power across four site-specific urban structures, turning the city’s streets into spaces of dialogue, dissent, and community-making.
Rather than a singular monumental edifice, Urban Radicals offer four participatory platforms: Speaker’s Plinths, Voicing Pod, Roundtable, and Assembly. Each is tailored to a scale of engagement — from solo expression to collective gathering. The installations first occupied prominent locations within the City of London and have since found permanent homes in community-led spaces in Lewisham and Newham, extending their life as functional urban infrastructure.
What’s striking is the project’s use of street aesthetics, low-cost materials, and references to both radical history and urban subcultures. The Speaker’s Plinths double as skate ramps; the Voicing Pod draws on pirate radio culture; the Roundtable mimics ancient councils beneath industrial textures; and the Assembly’s inflatable canopy transforms a street into an amphitheatre.
The design team—led by Nasios Varnavas and Era Savvides—rejects the traditional top-down form of political architecture. Instead, they embrace openness, horizontality, and flexibility. This is a “parliament” built not for governance, but for gathering—a celebration of London’s multiplicity and its right to civic expression.
With this work, Urban Radicals don’t just propose a new typology of public space—they activate it. Their Alternative Parliament is as much performance as it is architecture, a living stage for conversation, culture, and resistance. It invites us to imagine cities not as passive backdrops to power, but as co-authored spaces of democratic potential.
Assembly
Speaker’s Plinths
Voicing Pod
Roundtable
