The three week pop up restaurant – a feat in architecture

In recent years, with many retail businesses failing, we have seen the emergence of what is know as the pop up phenomenon whereby shops ‘pop up’ for a weekend or week in a High Street.  It makes sense for the landlord who gets a few quid for an unlet unit as well as offering retailers an opportunity to showcase their wares or dump some product. These units appear to come out of nowhere and move on just as quickly.

Today’s Observer provides details of an evolution of the aforementioned pop up phenomenon into dining.

A top London design practice has designed the scheme to capitalise on a three week period during the London Olympic Games.  Called Studio East Dining the pop up restaurant will be located on top of what will be a car park in the multi million pound Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre development which is due to open in 2011.

The paper explains the concept of the creation of Bistrotheque, the east London company that pioneered the idea of pop up in the capital. It has been designed by Carmody Groarke the young architectural practice renowned for their 7/7  memorial in Hydepark.

London hasn’t got the monopoly on pop-ups though.  Last Christmas we saw a retail pop up stored appearing on Belfast’s fashionable Lisburn Road for Terry Furniture.

Seems like a sensible way to make use of spare space to me.

And who said entrepreneurism is dead?

DMcC