Practice runs out of time to find space to show off house design

Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners has had to drop plans to show off a pre-fabricated timber house at next month’s London Design Festival because it can not find a space to exhibit it.

The house is similar to the those that have been built at its award-winning Oxley Woods development near Milton Keynes.

It was to have been used as an exhibition space throughout the 10-day festival before being offered to a family on a waiting list at a London housing association.

But a spokeswoman for the practice said its plans to show the house at a site in the City of London have been scuppered by logistical issues surrounding the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We identified two or three sites but ran out of time finding the right site,” she said. “A lot have been taken up with Olympics things such as sites to store crowd barriers.”

The firm held a number of meetings with City planners about various sites but has now decided to concentrate on exhibiting the house at a future festival.

The design festival is being held across a number of sites in London and a spokeswoman for the event, now in its 10th year, said: “There are always some things that are planned that don’t come to fruition. The house is not happening at this year’s festival but there might be something that happens next year.”