ABSTRACT
Andrew Lock founded LYN Atelier, a London-based architecture, interiors, exhibition and theatre design practice, in 2009 after winning a design competition. In 2011, LYN Atelier was invited to bid for what became the ‘Hub 67’ project: a temporary community centre made from material collected in shipping containers after the Olympics closed in 2012. Even when LYN got the commission, Lock says access to the site was limited: the contractors were busy doing other tasks for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). Even though Hub 67 was only a £350,000 temporary community building, the ODA procurement route started off being the same as for these much larger projects. The contractual set-up was also not appropriate for a small construction project made of second-hand material. LYN Atelier had to overcome an almost complete lack of information on the type of material they had to use, as well as limited information on the performance of this material once it arrived on site.
