The Space Between
Photography: Luke O’Donovan
Project
The Space Between I Riverside Terrace at the Southbank Centre
Team
Produced by Beyond the Box
Designed by QSP Studio
Commissioned by Southbank centre
Fabrication & Installation:
ARC Structures Ltd, Hyper Creative, JPS Events, Luke Watson, POW, Recollective, Simple Works, Myron Page & Abdul Rasheed
Location
Central London - City of London
When Southbank Centre invited Beyond The Box to design a dancefloor inspired by Emma Warren’s book Dance Your Way Home and their summer programme – a celebration of dancefloors from nightclubs to Irish halls to street parties – we saw more than just a space to move. We saw a space to connect, reflect, and reimagine how we move together.
We reached out to artist and designer Qudus St Patrick and his QSP Studio, and together, we created The Space Between — an interactive installation that lives between the River Thames and the iconic Southbank Centre. It’s a space where rhythm, sound, resistance, and community converge.
Framed by the everyday rhythm of the river and the pulse of cultural life, the terrace becomes a floor for reflection, celebration, and collective energy. A place to take up space and move with purpose — together. Here, we move differently.
We dance our histories. We dance for joy. For healing. For resistance.
What is a Dance-floor?
We started by questioning what is it a stage? A kitchen? A street corner? Or is it the spark between two people moving to the same beat?
Space Between reimagines the dancefloor not as a fixed location, but as a living, breathing force — where every step becomes an act of presence, defiance, and celebration.
An Invitation to Move
We don’t just want you to experience Space Between — we want you to feel it. Whether you sit, sway, or dance like everyone’s watching, this is your space to take up, to celebrate, to resist.
At the heart of the design is a soundwave-inspired canopy that casts dancing silhouettes onto the floor — shapes that dance with the sun by day and glow with light by night. Like dance itself, these motifs are in constant motion, inviting everyone to join the movement.
This dynamic play of light, shadow, and colour transforms the terrace into a space where movement becomes memory, and resistance becomes rhythm.
Shaped by Sound, Powered by People
