Barajas Jelly Airport - London, July 2008
Our first big jelly event was the Jelly Banquet at the London Festival of Architecture in 2008. We hosted a competition to find the Ultimate Jelly Architect – and discovered that it’s possible to attract more than 2000 people, and a lot of press, by presenting jellies with a bit of panache. In this case, we persuaded some of the world’s leading architects, including Lord Foster, Lord Rogers and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, to design jellies, and our competition ultimately attracted more than 100 designs from around the world. Some designs were of existing buildings, such as the Eden Project, while others were entirely new proposals. Lord Foster’s entry was particularly ambitious, representing his notorious wobbly Millennium Bridge. Others showed that there’s still life in jelly yet: Lord Rogers’s practice designed a beautiful modular jelly in the shape of their Barajas airport.
We were able to make the Barajas Airport jelly on a grand scale for Lord Rogers' 75th Birthday Party hosted at his West London home. Everyone was asked to slip off their shoes as they stepped across the threshold. This resulted in one rogue jelly causing an unanticipated stir by oozing between the toes of an unwary guest! The rest of the rainbow-hued jelly behaved better, remaining on the service planaquin until it was consumed in a trice by the assembled staff of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.