London's Festival of Architecture opening weekend, coordinated by RIBA London, celebrates one of the capital's most elegant thoroughfares, the Regency terraces of the north-south route between The Regent's Park and St James's Park, designed by John Nash - one of London's most influential town planner architects who shaped much of the London we know today.
The 2km stretch, known as the "Nash Ramblas" - a name coined by architect and urban designer Sir Terry Farrell, is populated by some of the UK's foremost historical, cultural and architecturally important landmarks. Thanks to a unique partnership between RIBA London, The Royal Parks, English Heritage, The Crown Estate and Applied Information Group (AIG) the public will be able to explore the route and delve into a wealth of rare archival images and information using a new, cutting-edge, iPhone application designed to take users on an annotated architecture tour around the route's key landmarks and festival events.
The app is free to download and has been designed by AIG and developed by The Electric Mapping Company using "real time" mapping. It allows users to self-navigate over 30 key sites taking in many of London's most iconic buildings and spaces with unique galleries supplied by RIBA pix and the National Monuments Record including Nash's All Souls, Broadcasting house, Liberty, Trafalgar Square, Waterloo Place and The Royal Parks. In addition, the application provides dedicated links and detailed information on many of the events, talks, debates, installations and exhibitions that are taking place in the West End throughout the festival.
"We're extremely excited about the launch of the Nash Ramblas iPhone application and have relished the opportunity to work closely with English Heritage, The Royal Parks and The Crown Estate in developing it," commented Tamsie Thomson, RIBA London Director. "At the touch of a finger, not only will the application enrich the experience for all London Festival of Architecture visitors, it will provide a unique, intimate insight into the genius of John Nash and all those who have contributed to make the route one of London's greatest and most celebrated architectural achievements."