Fun Palace

• Diagrammatic section for Fun Palace. Source: Cedric Price

According to the Canadian Centre for Architecture:—

• "File documents the various unexecuted proposals for the Fun Palace Project, an interactive and adaptable, educational and cultural complex to be located in London, England. The project was commissioned by Joan Littlewood, to be erected on disused public land slated for redevelopment and intended to be dismantled after 10 years. Conceptual and design development drawings were created for a typical Fun Palace that could be erected on any suitable site, and several sites were considered, some belonging to the Civic Trust. Presentation drawings were elaborated for a Fun Palace in the Lea Valley at Mill Meads and for a later modified Pilot Project in Camden Town. Publication drawings were also created for an article in Price, Cedric. "Fun Palace Project." 'Architectural Review'. (January 1965), 74-75. The Fun Palace Trust was created to oversee the project and the file contains material from related activities of the Trust which was active until the 1970's.
• Existing conditions drawings begin in 1961 and include regional, zoning, and transportation maps of Greater London and a photocollage of the site. Conceptual and diagrammatic drawings include: perspectives for the structural system; plans for site access; charts for modular systems; axonometrics for modules; preliminary drawings for escalators and service towers; and studies for activity areas. A "Table of Kindred and Affinity" separates modular components physically and visually by means of activity types, circulation, and individual/group accommodations. Design development drawings for the Fun Palace Project include: plans for activity areas, site plans, typical plans, site movement/circulation plans, theatre seating plans, diagrammatic sections, volumetric structural diagrams, perspectives, charts for services for mass activities, typical mass activity enclosure types, charts for required equipment for activities, and "clamp" structural systems and studies for three dimensional versatility and modular feasibility. Design development drawings for the 1963 Camden Town Pilot Project include: site plans; diagrammatic plans showing circulation patterns; drawings showing basic cubes with components and structural panel types; details for component connections; charts for individual activity module requirements; and network analysis charts. Presentation material includes: aerial photographs mounted on board; enlargements of clippings; reprographic copies of photographs of the design models. Material in this file was created between 1961 and 1985 but predominantly between 1961 and 1974.
• File contains conceptual drawings, design development drawings, presentation drawings and panels, publication drawings, reference drawings, an artefact, a film reel, models, photographic material, and textual records."
• Canadian Centre for Architecture (2008) Fun Palace Project, Cedric Price fonds, CCA.

--Archiblog 05:20, 17 Sep 2025 (BST)