The Pod

Launched in February 2017, The Pod was designed to put White City Place – the emerging creative campus in west London and formerly home to the BBC – on the map. The Pod works as both public art installation – helping visually centre and define this creative district as it undergoes construction – and a creative vehicle, drawing the creative community to this new campus.

Creative agency and placemaking specialists dn&co challenged Fathom Architects to design this striking, mobile, fully functional studio to enable brands, entrepreneurs and publications to take their first steps into the world of podcasting. Our concept took inspiration from loudspeakers and the movement of sound to create a disrupted cube with audio waves emanating from its centre. The 3.4m x 3.4m Pod has large circular windows, referencing speaker cones, allowing a strong visual connection between the broadcasters and passers-by.

The bold patterned façade of The Pod was created by translating the first spoken words transmitted by radio: “One, two, three, four. Is it snowing where you are Mr Thiessen?” into sound wave interference patterns, using bespoke digital scripting. The sound waves are represented by 350,000 ‘pixels’ using a colour palette drawn from the development’s branding.

An ambitious brief, short time frame and non-standard project typology created a set of delivery challenges which required an innovative approach to construction. Collaborating with Box Deluxe – a fabrication studio specialising in structures for film, TV and live events – we conceived and developed a viable design with a strong visual aesthetic. Wholly fabricated off-site, the structure was winched to its final location overnight, achieving the client’s aspiration for a pod which ‘appears from nowhere’.