Kate Mactiernan - Founder, Shuffle Festival, London

Originally from Perth, Australia, Kate studied and practiced architecture throughout the world.

Landing in London amid the financial crisis Kate worked in a practice in the East End and simultaneoulsy launched and spearheaded a community and cultural festival, Shuffle, with film Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire etc.). The festival took place in a former psychiatric hospital and workhouse, and 35 acre cemetery that had overgrown into the densest urban woodland in London.

The festival fostered the communal and creative spirit of an area beset with division, not just in terms of physical planning with tower blocks and deprivation on one side of a four lane highway and quaint pubs and Georgian manions on the other, but also experienceing social, cultural and economic disclocation between the two sides. Shuffle Festival used the arts to foster community, to create a campaign for the first Community Land Trust houses on the site and for artists to bring their work directly to new, often under-served audiences.Many temporary architectural pieces were built, including three double-story restaurants, 5 cinemas, an art gallery and other work collaborating with some of Britain’s best sculptors, film makers and artists, including Richard Wilson (https://www.richardwilsonsculptor.com), Jarvis Cocker, Paul Insect, Ezra Collective, Andrea Arnold and many many more.During its time the long running event employed many young people in Mile End and won the following awards:

- Mayor of London award for the Best Cultural Event of 2014

- London School of Economics ‘Urban Commons’ award

- Guggenheim, New York ‘Urban Trends’ award and Exhibition

It also remained free for anyone in the area who could not afford to attend.

Many of the ideas around Shuffle, namely that Architecture and city planning should not just be about physical creation of space but who is able to claim that space and how it is used, went into the thinking around programming and building of the workspace, Second Home (London, Lisbon, Los Angeles). This is another project Kate will touch on during her talk about cities and creativity.