London Festival of Architecture
Work: No.1616 Fence
Location: London Festival of Architecture, UK
Date: 2026
No.1616 Fence is by artist Rana Begum and engineering practice Webb Yates. The work explores boundaries, borders, and belonging in relation to art and engineering, public space and the built environment, context and materiality.
This monumental installation that plays with a material paradox. Standing outside the iconic Space House in central London, it is built from industrial, powder-coated mesh: a material that both closes off physical access while remaining entirely visually open. The inherent transparency and porosity of the mesh acts as a form of structural mark making, creating a gauze of colour that engages a visual dialogue with the surrounding site.
Photography by Andy Stagg
The work takes inspiration from prosaic structures such as pylons and radio masts. These minimal structures designed with economy and clarity of purpose often achieve a visual elegance that we sometimes don’t give attention to.
“I love pushing against the expectations of materials and working within
structural constraints; collaborating with engineers really helps open up
possibilities where you thought there were none.”
– Rana Begum, artist
The choice of a loud, distinctive red cuts through the visual noise of the busy central London environment, acting as a warning sign that invites passersby to stop in their tracks. The white and grey mineral and concrete material of Space House makes for a more austere setting for the work, it is dramatic in an urban way, with architectural pattern and sky as the backdrop.
From certain angles, the material overlaps into a dense, aggressive patch of solid red; from others, it slims down into a crisp line or almost entirely disappears, letting the surrounding architecture and sky take over. A continuation of a 2024 installation created during a residency in Verbier, Switzerland, this new installation responds directly to its austere, urban setting by Space House.
Located between Covent Garden and Holborn, Space House is a 267,000 sq ft workspace and retail campus that has recently undergone an extensive sustainability-led renovation. One of several London landmarks, including Centre Point and NatWest Tower, designed by the architect Richard Seifert with his long-term collaborator, engineer Willem Frischmann, the building is a synthesis of their disciplines, belonging simultaneously to the realms of structure and architecture.
