Summer Gala – The Soiree in the Jungle!
Fiona Mckay
After cancelling the 2020 event, the AIA UK was excited to host its first in-person event in over 12 months. The 2021 Summer Gala took place on the evening of the 10th of September! Our Soiree in the Jungle was held at the wonderful London Zoo in Regents Park. Attendance exceeded expectations with many guests indicating this was the first in-person event they had attended in a long time.
The historic Mappin Pavilion, located in the Zoo grounds, was a perfect venue for a pleasant late-summer evening gathering. The outside deck overlooked the Zoo’s Outback enclosure that contained a number of wallabies and emus. Hopefully, our festivities did not disturb them too much. Our “animal experience” was further enhanced when a zookeeper brought a young owl to the party!
In addition to the usual comradery, the highlight of the evening was our much anticipated raffle sponsored by Herman Miller, HAY, and Colebrook Boson Saunders. This year Herman Miller donated not one, but three chairs for the raffle! And a number of other great prizes were donated by HAY and CBS. Our lucky (and worthy) winners were Lester Korzilius, FAIA winning a unique new model Aeron Chair, Daniella Marshall from ID:SR winning a COSM mid back chair, and Fatos Peja, AIA winning a COSM low back chair. A special thank you to Shazia Sheikh from Herman Miller for organizing such fantastic prizes and congratulations to all of the winners!
A number of the 2021 AIA UK Excellence in Design Awards winners were in attendance. During the evening they were honoured with the presentation of their award certificates.
The food was tasty and plentiful, and the drinks kept flowing while guests were entertained throughout the evening with live music and singing provided by Ollie Atkins.
All too soon the evening was over, and the last guests departed for home at 11 pm. No doubt, a great relief to the wallabies and emus! Thank you to all those who attended and thank you to Herman Miller for their support of the Gala and continuing support of the AIA UK. We are all looking forward to next year’s Gala and we hope to see you at an AIA UK event soon!
Written by: Michael Lischer, FAIA
