Cleopatra’s Kiosk, London, UK

This small building stands on a compact site overlooking the Thames along the Victoria Embankment, a location crossed daily by heavy pedestrian flows due to its proximity to an Underground station and to Charing Cross Station. A railway bridge and the celebrated Golden Jubilee Pedestrian Bridge also run above the competition area. The name Cleopatra’s Kiosk derives from the nearby Cleopatra’s Needle, a commemorative obelisk located a short distance away.

The brief of the competition, organized by RIBA on behalf of a private client, called for the design of a kiosk for selling boat tickets and souvenirs to replace the existing structure. The site was subject to significant environmental constraints, being located on the Thames in the heart of the City of Westminster, an area with stringent historical and architectural protections.

The project took shape as an urban object with a vaguely zoomorphic form, evoking that of a river creature. Its strengths lie in its ability to change configuration—visually communicating its different states (closed/open) through the movement of its large hatches—and in its strong nighttime presence, thanks to the light filtering through the glazed surfaces. The sliding side hatch fully opens the volume, revealing the sales counter, while the front rotating hatch, when open, becomes a display case for smaller items.

The small building features a steel‑tube structure clad in a special micro‑textured stainless steel. Given the particular constraints of the site, the structure was prefabricated in a workshop in Kent, transported into central London in two parts on a large barge, and assembled on site atop a previously constructed concrete foundation.