Small is Big: Regeneration of Inner-Periphery Town-Centres of London

Regeneration of Inner-Periphery Town Centres of London by Intensifying a Diverse Portfolio of Small Sites.

Humaira Kabir AA School of Architecture, London Housing & Urbanism

SMALL is big

SMALL IS BIG

ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE GRADUATE SCHOOL PROGRAMMES COVERSHEET FOR SUBMISSION 2019-20 PROGRAMME:

MArch Housing & Urbanism

STUDENT NAME:

Humaira Kabir

SUBMISSION TITLE:

Small is Big

Regeneration of Inner-Periphery Town-Centres of London

COURSE TITLE :

MArch Dissertation

COURSE TUTOR:

Elena Pascolo

DECLARATION:

“I certify that this piece of work is entirely my/our own and that

any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of others is duly acknowledged.”

Signature of Student: Date:

17.01.2020

Acknowledgements I consider myself extremely lucky to have a long list of support system. I’d like to begin by thanking Allah, the Almighty for giving me the chance of being at AA and completing the course with dignity.

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the love and support of lovely parents and brothers.

This project is possible because of three iconic and compassionate women in my life: My mother, Elena and Anna.

To, Elena Pascolo, for being so supportive and inspirational. I’ve had the good fortune of working the longest with her and her beautiful complex mind. Thank you for motivating me to pick my own horse, even unicorn at times.

To Anna Shapiro, for her incessant efforts and guidance. Thank you for inspiring, scolding, motivating and caring for me and my project all along. Instagram or not, you’re an influencer!

To Lawrence Barth, for his support and stimulating conversations. Thank you for teaching us the critical art of being articulate in thinking, drawing and speaking.

To Jorge Fiori, Rodrigo, Dominic, and all other tutors for contributing in my journey with their wisdom and skills.

To my absolutely amazing classmates, for the all the fun and crazy times. I’d like to especially thank Archit, Sunny, James, Lily, Zak, Arunima, Marcel, Stef, Manasa, Suhani and others, for being my family!

To the entire staff and AA community for all their generous efforts in making us feel at home.

Abstract The radical shifts in our economic patterns and technological advancements coupled with environmental concerns pose a great challenge regarding the future of town-centres with centralized concentrated zones expected to deliver leisure, cultural and economic opportunities. How can an additional network of distributed services and utilities embedded in our largely residential environments foster a more inclusive, innovative and resilient area-based economy?

Small is Big, calls for a new approach to regenerate inner-periphery town centres of London by densifying and intensifying a diverse portfolio of small sites beyond the current boundaries of highstreets. The intent of this research is to establish key propositions across scales of procurement, classified use order, design and governance to cultivate viable capacities in small developments.

The occurrence of repeatable site conditions in London’s urban fabric suggests the exploration of a prototypical approach in testing the scope and limits of small plots across two scales- local impact and strategic area regeneration. The design exploration across the three trailblazing projects aims to deliver plausible scenarios of increased quantum of housing as well as effective productive environments while regenerating the adjacent areas.

The unambiguous aim of this research is to create urban conditions for small businesses to thrive in our growing town centres while accommodating the growth of residential communities. Additionally, the crossovers between the multi-layered fabric strengthen the economy and fosters an inclusive civic life of the urban area.

Contents Introduction 1 Part i_ concept of the town centre

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1.1 Limitations and Opportunities 7 1.2 Collective Formations: Emerging Trends of Parallel Urban Ecologies

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1.3 Typological Variation: Upgrading Town-Centres

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Part ii_ Regeneration of Brixton town-centre

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2.1 Introducing Social and Physical Infrastructure

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2.2 Trailblazing Projects 35 A. Live+Work: Reconfiguration of Terraced Housing Block B. Learning Centres: Upgrading Residential Enclaves

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C. Make+Play+Sell: Idea of Productive Backyards

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2.3 Collective Impact of Localised Clusters

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Part iii_ Reviewing values and policies

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3.1 Viability of Distributed Quantum

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3.2 Challenging Policies

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3.3 Network of South-London Town-Centres

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Conclusion_ Small is Big 103 Bibliography 108 List of images 109

Introduction The most significant change in London’s work and workplaces is the massive growth of selfemployment – which reached an all-time high of 4.5 million in 2014 – and the boom in freelancing and business start-ups. Micro and small businesses (with 1–49 employees) account for at least half of London’s jobs, and by some estimates there are nearly 1 million such enterprises in the capital.

This change is due to increasing demand for work-life balance, flexibility, collaboration and social interaction, especially in younger workers, all enabled by technological innovation.1 However, despite the growth pattern, London has seen a rapid loss of employment opportunities more than what any planning policy had envisaged, due to high residential demand and land values.

The research calls for a greater focus on safeguarding productive premises for Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs), Low Threshold Enterprise Spaces (LTES), and affordable workspaces in our growing inner-periphery city centres of London. These together form a resilient ecosystem that enables local economy to thrive with localised supply chains, collaborators, clients, talented workforce and diverse investors.

London Legacy Development Corporation, Greater London Authority and Boroughs have commissioned studies on the importance of multi-layered urban fabric with living and working spaces, thus underpinning a more inclusive and sustainable model for urban growth. However, the idea that we can build high density residential enclaves, whose inhabitants commute to a few metropolitan scale office and shopping hubs, or designated ‘industrial’ zones is still pervasive, despite seeming unsustainable and outdated.2 Despite the acknowledged importance of mixeduse environments, some town-centres like Brixton, testing ground for research, rely heavily upon a concentrated centre, now termed as Business Improvement District (BID, along the high streets and near to the tube-station; while potential sites beyond the physical boundary of BID get redeveloped as the same genre of residential developments. The fundamental problem here is the myopic evaluation of BID with its limited focus on the commercial value returns.

decisions where in the buildings cannot be categorised as use order but rather as spatially dynamic yet contextually situated.

The added advantage and reasoning behind selecting small sites is the higher viability due to lesser required financial investments and single ownership status. The proposition then challenges the current residential class use order of the strategic sites under the H2 Policy, owned by the Local council, on the premise of them having the potential to deliver productive spaces embedded in residential neighbourhoods.

This research aims at enabling the Local Council as primary site owners, to identify and release the augmented potential in their portfolio of sites and use it to initiate a dialogue between a diverse group of plausible actors, developers and stakeholders. A flexible stock of diverse spaces would accommodate the growth of a wide range of current and future sectors, sustain the evolution of the rich socio-economically symbiotic ecosystem and enable effective business engagement and interaction with local communities.

The proposed model would impact the city as a whole – by amplifying the vibrancy, sense of belonging and distinct character of our neighbourhoods. The extended network maintains a critical quantum of services and utilities; generates a sustainable economic loop through the environmental benefits of localised supply chains, reduced commuting, and the potential for balanced district energy systems. This would make local and London-wide economies more diverse, innovative, inclusive and resilient, as well as fulfilling ambitions for increased housing supply.

The research challenges this current BID model and proposes a distributed network of services and effective productive environments to not only broaden the physical extent of the BID but also to deepen the understanding of what our contemporary business ecologies have to offer in terms of spatial regeneration, learning, leisure, and meaningful civic interaction.

The vision is to achieve this extended growth model through the pursuit of design exploration in three trailblazing projects on sites lesser than 0.5 Hectare; suggesting a spatial framework of how can design allow for accommodating mixed-use environments on small sites while addressing the challenges of access, privacy, thresholds and mobility patterns. The emergence of new hybrids in our fabric, between production and retail, between design, prototyping and marketing, between employment space and community space, between co-working and making space is blurring the lines between traditional use classes and building types.2 This establishes the direction of design

1. “WRK / LDN,” accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/whats-on/publications/all-nlapublications/wrk-ldn.

2. “Centre for London | Places That Work,” accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.centreforlondon.org/publication/placesthat-work/

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Part 1 Emerging Concept of town-centres

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1.1 Critique of Town-Centres: Limitations and Opportunities Town centres are integral components of London’s urban fabric and significantly contribute to the social value (economic, civic and environmental) of the urban area. The character of most towncentres is alike; linear high-streets with a tube connectivity to other parts of London and bus networks flowing in and out of town centres. Typical high-streets have ground floors as retail units and offices on the above floors and accommodate a large amount of working and visiting population (about 1.45million, according to some reports) along roughly a distance of 200-400metres. The majority of Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 50 employees make up 99% of all London businesses and account for 41% of employment, suggesting a huge collective impact on towncentres.

Despite the large demand of SMEs, some town centres are struggling to stay relevant and accommodate their growth. A larger reason is the outdated inflexible infrastructure coupled with the new speculative residential developments just beyond the high-streets that are often too generic – with just some retail on the ground floor. Recent GLA figures place the loss of total office floorspace to residential conversion across London at 1.47 million square meters since 2013 – a result of the considerable differential between office and residential values (‘based on an assumption of one job per 16 square meters, this equates to space for 93,750 jobs’)3.

are limited to linear arteries of high streets with concentrated services and seldom do they provide flexible and convenient environments for SMEs to thrive and engage with local communities, which are a key source of collaborators and clients.

It is imperative to highlight the importance of SMEs across London’s fabric not only because of their economic contribution but also for their long-term impacts on society. SMEs are a natural fit for predominantly residential neighborhoods as they provide sustainable employment opportunities, community engagement and physical regeneration sooner than most large developments.

Given the limitations of what the current town-centre offers, what we see around is a plethora of significant emerging trends that suggest new forms of urban content beyond the high-streets. The key factor across all types is the dire need for provision of spaces to retain growing (or contracting) businesses within their supportive ecosystem of shared services and utilities. Additionally, these trends ensure small businesses stay in serviced urban locations- in proximity to residential communities, potential partners, collaborators and clients, in exchange for cultural, productive and leisure amenities.

This has created gaps in our business ecologies, which have further been amplified by the narrow understanding of the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). Most BID zones in the town-centres

Bottom: Catherine High-Street, London

3. “WRK / LDN,” accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/whats-on/publications/all-nlapublications/wrk-ldn.

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What is the foundational logic of the emerging trends that we see around us?

What is their common method of procurement, if any? What is the extent of their reach in terms of local and London-wide impacts? What do they collectively suggest in terms of programmatic variation and associated social value?

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1.2 Emerging Trends : Collective Formations When we critically study the emerging trends around our urban fabric, they all highlight the growth of the contemporary entrepreneurial society, and the long-term values associated with collective formations. Anna Shapiro, professor at AA School of Architecture, argues that collective formations focus on the forms of content in our urbanity, they generate environments based on diverse partnership models and establish new forms of value exchanges.4 They have a significant influence upon all sectors of urban growth, most obvious being the SMEs and public domain.

These trends are a consequence of how the limitations of high-street environments coupled with a lack of strategic vision have led to adaptive re-uses of existing infrastructure or the meanwhile uses.

The flexible typologies, leasing structures and innovative combinations of partnerships in this sector of working spaces have challenged the age-old established models of working environments.

The example of Peckham Levels is significant in the discourse of collective formations. The strong community of artists and creative industries in Peckham were struggling to cope within the redundant infrastructure of the high-street services. The community-led initiative and adaptive re-use scheme

by Carl Turner Architects converted an abandoned multi-level parking structure of Peckham Levels to host over 100 independent small/medium businesses. The re-use of the building not only provisioned space for economic opportunities but generated a space for meaningful interaction with the community itself. There is now a wide range of possibilities that has a multi-generational appeal to working and living communities, multiple workshops, galleries, cinema theatre, kids playarea, bar and a food-hall. The social and economic impact of Peckham Levels has regenerated the urban block and has contributed to London-wide benefits.

Pop Brixton is a case of meanwhile use on a small site of 0.47 Hectares. It is a community initiative founded by Make Shift that transformed a disused plot of land into an innovative space that delivers affordable space to 47 independent businesses supporting 200 jobs, 5,800 volunteering hours and £9m per annum for the local economy. Boxpark in Shoreditch is another successful example of collective formations, however constrained by meanwhile-use policy.

The trends prove that SMEs underpin London’s economy, not just as drivers for growth, but as the glue that holds communities together. Workspace for small businesses forms an essential part of the wider urban ecosystem of London’s neighbourhoods, supporting the economic viability of high streets and town centres through increasing footfall and often increasing the value of assets, and also cultural activities, social cohesion, character and identity of place.

What is key amongst all trends is that they are barely nudging their ways into our urban ecologies.

Surely, just relying upon exceptional planning permissions, adaptive reuse or meanwhile-use isn’t the best way to safeguard the huge proportion of SMEs in our serviced town-centres. They need to be protected under a cohesive strategy that lays down a vision for the new developments.

Opposite (Top, Bottom): Peckham Levels, Peckham Pop Brixton, Brixton Boxpark, Shoreditch

4. Lecture at Housing & Urbanism, AA School of Architecture, 2019.

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Peckham levels, peckham

Bottom: Fifth/Sixth Floor Plan, Site Plan Opposite (Left; Right): Dynamic Programmatic Variation with a central service core; Kids Play area, Yoga Studios, Artist Workshops Rooftop Bar and Food Hall.

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What should be our next steps into the research of a spatial framework for guiding new developments onto similar small sites? How can typological reasoning ensure that our new building stock densifies and intensifies small sites in/around the town centres to accommodate both SMEs and housing demands?

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1.3 Typological variation : Upgrading town-centres There is a shift in how we now read spaces, from being viable and mono-functional they are now expected to achieve a set of possibilities that sit within the DNA of a multi-layered urban setting.

Consequently, as a discipline we are invested in typological reasoning and how it describes structure, organisation, forms of content- values that do not rely upon user type or category of the building genre. The increasing fluidity of work and the increasingly blurred demarcations across business sectors and working districts means that there are opportunities to create new innovative mixed-use typologies of networked spaces, to reflect the gradual convergence and co-location of working, living, playing, learning, creating and making. 5 The example of Department Store in Brixton by Squire and Partners is a key spatial precedent to suggest how a new building genre can create environments to facilitate collective formations.

The project took an unoccupied department store, old fire station with access to the high street of Brixton and rows of terraced houses at the rear end of block. The design approach regenerates the experience of the access street with an open ground floor that allows for multiple retail actors along the edge. The internal double-height volumes create spaces for meaningful interactions amongst an architectural office, co-working spaces and a public bar-restaurant at the roof top.

However, there are certain limitations to it, as it does not provide housing accommodation, change the block structure or mobility pattern. Nevertheless, the project is an intriguing starting point and raises key questions regarding the future of innovative typologies.

Opposite: Ground Floor Plan of Department Store, Brixton Open Ground Floor with programmatic Variation

5.“Planning Committe Town Centres Report.Pdf,� accessed November 3, 2019, https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ Planning%20Committe%20Town%20Centres%20Report.pdf.

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Department store, brixton

Bottom: Thickened Ground Floor, Active Frontages along the access roads.

Opposite: Open Floor Plans, Double-height Internal Volumes, Rooftop Public Bar and Leisure Club.

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What are the next steps towards innovative mixed-use typologies that achieve spatial and programmatic variation? The testing ground of research is the Brixton Town-centre, where the aim of the design-led-research is to address the challenges of access, privacy, thresholds, frontages, densities while dealing with socially rich contextual challenges.

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Part 2 Regeneration of Brixton town-centre

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2.1 introducing social and physical infrastructure Brixton has been at the forefront of London-wide debates regarding the pace of socio-economic change based on its strong localized economy. A large part of the Brixton business base is SMEs (0-9 employees): these represent 86% of all businesses in the area. Despite the evident potential, the growth of Brixton’s creative and technology driven employment sectors has been lower than many other inner-peripheries town-centres of London.6 Brixton town centre’s condition is akin to the characteristics critiqued above; concentrated centre limited to high streets with a lack of innovative typologies coupled with same genre of residential developments in the entire wider area.

Reports show that in the recent years, the availability of office space in Brixton has been lower compared to other struggling town centres like Peckham or Lewisham and drastically behind successful ones like Camden or Angel. The relaxed planning laws and high residential demandsand-returns have led to losing commercial space to residential use, accounting for 60% of all losses.

Despite this, the strong local economy has managed to sustain itself and shows promising potential in terms of risen businesses and employment growth. Multiple small initiatives by SMEs and resident communities, like Pop Brixton, are the reason behind the sustenance of the local economy.

Spending a day walking around in Brixton, one will find a range of small initiatives sporadically emerging beyond the designated BID zone; initiatives not safeguarded by the current BID zone or any other Planning Policy. The envisaged growth model of the BID is merely a slightly physical extension of the current model and does not legitimize these impactful initiatives.

Bottom: Surveys comparing Brixton to other InnerPeriphery Town Centres of London Opposite: Physical Extent of the BID Model envisioned by the Local Borough, slightly extended beyond current highstreet offers and services.

Office Availability

Jobs Growth (2010-15)

Business Growth (2010-15)

6. “Brixton-Economic-Action-Plan-2017-v1.Pdf,” accessed July 29, 2019, https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ Brixton-Economic-Action-Plan-2017-v1.pdf.

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Bottom: Market Arcade in High-Street Somerset Place, Recent residential development next to Town Hall, on the main Brixton Hill Road.

Opposite: Extent of Employment Opportunities in Brixton

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Some examples of emerging trends beyond BID zone; 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning (198 CAL), is a centre for visual arts, education and creative enterprise to support emerging, underrepresented artists and to advance public interest in the visual arts. Another example of International House, an old council building being slightly revamped to accommodate multiple SMEs and Low Threshold Enterprises. BuyGiveWork, the scheme by 3Space, gives out space for every commercially rented space. The generous intent of the model is to promote inclusivity and foster new businesses. However, in theory the project remains a meanwhile occupation and awaiting demolition to be possibly replaced by a housing tower with ground floor shops. (Critique from Edouard Dembiermont from LinkCity) All these trends capitalise upon cheaper land costs and higher possibilities of interaction with residential communities, away from the high streets. However, due to no concrete framework, political or physical, their impact remains very limited to low concentrations, often at the largesse of charities and the collaborators/users are incessantly at risk of being driven out.

Bottom: Brixton Sectors: Employment Size, Concentration and Productivity Opposite: Emerging Trends beyond the BID Zone

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Bottom: Projects in Pipeline- Brixton Windmill Education and Recreation Centre, Squire and Partners 198 Contemporary Arts Limited Opposite (clockwise): Tailoring Studio, Delivery Model, Buy-Give-Work Scheme at International House, Brixton

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The critical reading of these trends, meanwhile uses or adaptive reuses, together with new projects in pipeline suggest a revised concept of town-centre – a network of distributed services and utilities. The proposition is to deliver innovative typologies on strategic sites beyond the high streets of Brixton to regenerate the urban area by the pursuit of design exploration and contest the current barriers – viability and policies.

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2.2 Trailblazing projects There is almost universal consensus that the ultimate purpose of the physical workplace – in any type of economy is to support social interaction, which drives the innovation necessary to support a diverse and resilient economy, society and city. The increasing fluidity of work a nd the increasingly blurred demarcations across business sectors and working districts means that there are opportunities to create new innovative mixed-use typologies of networked spaces, to reflect the gradual convergence and co-location of working, living, learning and making . Ultimately, the workplace of the future will need a new typology of the city.

The three selected sites, all under 0.5 Hectares are situated southern to the Brixton town-hall.

This small portfolio of sites is owned by the Council and awaiting demolition to be replaced by new residential development. The sites are strategic in terms of access to main roads, adjacent assets like residential communities, Training College and Retail Parks. The design challenge is to accommodate both housing provision and retain the large proportion of SMEs to strengthen Brixton’s local economy.

‘Work is no longer where you go – it’s what you do’, runs a familiar contemporary saying. Work in the service-led and knowledge economy is no longer a linear process with defined outputs but a more complex set of activities centered on less tangible concepts such as collaboration and innovation.

The projects depict variation in typologies, partnership arrangements and delivery models to generate long-lasting legacies, both spatially and institutionally.

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Educational/Institutional Cultural Retail Opposite: Three Selected Sites for Pilot Projects Embedded within Residential Blocks

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The projects explore three site conditions that repeat morphologically across London’s fabric.

1. Linear plot (90x30m) facing the Brixton road with its rear facing the backyards of terraced housing.

2. Almost linear plot slightly stepped back from the main road; facing secondary streets on both short edges and the long edges establishing different relationship on either sides.

3. The third linear plot is rotated by 90 degree such that it sits into the depth of the block and addresses different frontages on all sides.

Left to Right (1,2,3): Three Varying Conditions of Linear Sites

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a.

Co-locating Live+Work: Reconfiguration of Terraced Housing Block

The first linear site is on the Brixton Hill Road about 400m away in the South from the Brixton Town Hall, faces the 500m long Rush-Commons Conservation park, with secondary streets leading to residential mews along both of its short edges.

Finn Williams, co-founder at NLA, points out that we overlook the fact that the greatest proportion of new homes in London are delivered on sites below 0.25 hectares, which lies outside the core scope of local plans.7 Given how vital this scale is to the housing supply, innovative models must be devised to deal with the cumbersome tasks of engaging multiple actors to develop on small sites and enable new forms of living in centralized areas.

Hence, the proposition for this site is to provide about 25 housing units, a multi-purpose community room , retail outlets, office spaces and a cafĂŠ with hot working desks. The aim is to show how design can accommodate this co-location and enable a system of recurring civic and economic returns.

Opposite (Top to Bottom): View from the Brixton Hill Road View of the Residential Rows at the Rear End of the Block Aerial View of Site.

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Paul Karakusevic and Abigail Batchelor, Social Housing : Definitions & Design Exemplars, 2017, 14.

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Alms housing, bermondsey The precedent of Alms Housing, old-age living designed by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, in Bermondsey sits on a similar linear-type site condition in a largely residential urban area. The U-typology of the building creates an internal shared courtyard/garden which is overlooked by the corridors above. The linear front is opened up from the centre to create the entry foyer and leads to a shared meeting area (with a coffee bar) at the rear. The typology is as sensitive solution which respects the privacy and character of the residential backyards at the rear end of the site.

Bottom: Site Plan Opposite (Top, Bottom): North-South Section, Ground Floor Plan

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Opposite: View of the Internal Courtyard Visual and Physical Linkage between the Main Road and the community space at the back

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How can we re-structure a similar site condition to accommodate both living and working environments, create separate private and public access points, generate shared civic spaces and fundamentally allow for block-restructuring as a whole?

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The typical linear front of a housing block can be re-imagined; towards the main road, a thickened ground can allow for multiple retail actors along the frontage with a double-height foyer through which upper-floors of office spaces can be accessed. The separate entry foyer for the residents activates the northern corner; five ground floor dwellings being accessed both from the main road and internal garden - a scenario ideal for cared-housing units. Additionally, the first-floor housing units are given an external access to allow for short-term sublets.

Opposite: Linear Adjacencies along the Main Road Bottom: Proposed East Facade

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The plan of the site is essentially two L-typologies, which creates two distinctive inner-courtyards, with a shared flexible space in between the two. The L-Typology housing building in the north side has its main access from the North-east corner edge.

Two separate micro-mobility routes, one from the rear end of the site (middle of the block) and other from the north-west end of the block, lead to a multi-purpose hall and the garden which can be used by the entire residential community. Additionally, a slightly larger garden space can be generated by a negotiation with, say two, terraced houses; where they give up some of their backyard space in exchange of other services. One may think it is overly ambitious, but nevertheless it considers the possibility of community agreements or in another case just a vision for future developments when the terraces run their due course of time.

The other half of the site (southern) accommodates retail units opening out to a small yard which can also be accessed from the southern edge of the site and South-West edge of the block.

The rectangular space in the middle of the site allows for both users to interact in a controlled environment. The space can very effectively be imagined as a cafĂŠ or a serviced meeting room.

A plausible set of stakeholders can be - medium/small housing providers, Council and Hatch-a community business incubator working in South London. Hatch has been working with over 200 local entrepreneurs in and around Brixton since 2014.

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Opposite: Ground Floor Plan

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Now as a result, what we see is an equally intriguing rear elevation where a mutli-layered environment is created both transversally and along the depth of the entire block. The separate access paths together with two distinctive courtyards create multiple possibilities of collective formations of our new age living expectations from the social and physical infrastructure.

This project sets out a clear intent of restructuring ubiquitous terraced housing blocks of London by creating spatial and programmatic variation on small sites to accommodate both residential and workspaces.

Bottom: Proposition_ Section through the Rear Edge Opposite: Block Condition at the Rear

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Bottom: Rear Elevational Perspective Variety and Variation along Lengths and Depths of the Site

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Opposite: Re-configuration of the Housing Block by creating spatial and programmatic variation on a small site to accommodate both residential and workspaces.

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Learning in the Park: Upgrading Residential Enclaves

The second site is a linear plot with a slight tweak at the centre, which sits between a not-so-active Park and the terraced houses. The Brixton branch of the Lambeth College is situated 100m away from the site along the Brixton Hill Road.

The pervasive trend of interiorized urbanity has enabled for our social interaction to shift indoors.

This allows a greater convenience in curating a wide range of cross-disciplinary practices especially in the digitalized sectors; from learning to creating or selling to training. The age of ‘Netflix’ signifies the connection between the digital economy and society. The digital-creative industries are creating jobs four times as quickly as the wider economy in London, with over 7,500 digital start-ups in 2016.

However, the role of the education sector is sometimes underplayed in the remarkable creative output of the UK. Hence, to enhance this potential and given the proximity to Lambeth College, the proposition for this site is to create a digital learning centre. This is to establish a meaningful connection between the park and the disused extensions beyond the private backyards. The aim is to create an asset that ensures the end-users to learn from various disciplines beyond one’s own expertise.

Opposite (Top to Bottom): View from the N-E corner looking toward the Main Road View of the Inactive Public Park from the Main Road Aerial View of Site

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How can the morphology reconfigure the internal environments of the entire urban block to become more ambitious in terms of enabling the new forms of value exchanges? The idea of breaking the building from the centre is to establish a meaningful connection between the park and the backyards and enhance the character of the disused central park of the block. This can also allow two separate buildings to provide variation in programmatic and tenancy arrangements.

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The design logic of two separate buildings with flipped orientations opens up the centre of the site; with the Northern block to have main access from the North-west corner facing the park and the Southern block to have access from the secondary street. The positioning of the service cores frees up the floor plates and allows for a possibility of lease options- ranging from open-plan rentable floors to smaller studios around the atrium space.

The ground floor is conceived as more formal entry from the streets’ accesses transitioning into more informal environments of exchanges towards the centre. Both the buildings can host organized meetings or conferences with direct access from the streets; while the internal parts seamlessly merge into the outdoor landscape. The central parts on ground floors are about 1m lower in datum to match the level of backyards. The internal environments on either side of the access route can foster an exciting public domain, with shared libraries, cafÊ, meeting rooms, or a documentary theatre!

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Opposite: Ground Floor Plan Proposition of Expanding Park into Backyards and viceversa through an Open Ground Floor.

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The proposition intensifies the site and creates a plausible intriguing partnership model that is viable to all stakeholders - council, private(both larger and small stakeholders) and the local community.

There is a huge demand for space by digital sectors across London, however some localized actors and stakeholders are detailed in order to strengthen the brief reasoning. Lambeth has an interesting collaboration trend between secondary schools and creative and technology employers.

Additionally, Lambeth College supports the creative development of hundreds of local students.

Organizations such as Raw Material, the London Connected Learning Centre (CLC), and Lambeth Music Service provide extra-curricular work for young people. CLC runs a digital skills programme in partnership with IBM to provide opportunities and experiences for children and teachers; and collaborates with local cultural organizations such as The Garden Museum, BFI and Tate Modern to provide creative and meaningful contexts for the use of technology. Other actors like Photofusion London’s largest independent photography resource centre and Reprezent Radio -UK’s only youthled FM radio station, connect media companies with young talent.8 The council and other national schemes are keen to invest in creative and tech sectors as have been increasingly credited with wider economic benefits, enhancing innovation and productivity.9 The SMEs can take advantage of engaging with a multigenerational market and a quirky young workforce. The big actors and stakeholders like IBM want to be a part because of another emerging trend: larger businesses making use of shared workspace especially for specific innovative teams.

There are many perceived business advantages to this, like focused collaboration can stimulate creative thinking outside the ‘corporate’ office environment; and being in a better position to identify emerging trends, build direct relationships with entrepreneurs and sell their services to others. The trend was started by large and medium-sized companies in the financial, management services and technology sector, such as IBM, E&Y and KPMG, but is now extending to other sectors.

Opposite: Aerial Image showing the Inactive Centre of the Block Next Page: Approaching the Learning Centre from the inside of the Residential Block; manoeuvring between the backyards.

8. “Brixton-Economic-Action-Plan-2017-v1.Pdf.” 9. “Lambeth-Creative-Digital-Industry-Strategy-—-October-2018.Pdf,” accessed November 18, 2019, https://lambethnow. co.uk/cdi/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/11/Lambeth-Creative-Digital-Industry-Strategy-%E2%80%94-October-2018.pdf

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ortus learning centre, camberwell The example of ORTUS in Camberwell supports my proposition of investing in small scale learning centres embedded within our residential enclaves. ORTUS is a 1,550sqm pavilion, housing learning and event facilities, cafe and exhibition spaces. The central focus of this unique project, initially called ‘Project Learning Potential’, is to create a totally immersive learning environment generating a series of interconnecting spaces to encourage intuitive learning activities either in groups or individually and also to create possibilities for digital learning.

Maudsley Learning, a Community Interest Company that runs the building, aims to raise knowledge and awareness of mental health and wellbeing through the development of a virtual learning environment and the creation of learning events focusing on mental health and wellbeing across a broad audience.10 In response to locally evident contextual influences the building has been conceived as a freestanding pavilion, regular in both plan and volume. The building has a simple rectilinear form with staggered half-stories of flexible spaces arranged around an atrium. The ground floor is essentially a sequence of open spaces with conference room, café, an auditorium/sunken court for events or daily work meetings.

Bottom: Site Plan; The project sits facing residential mews.

Opposite: Section along East-West and Site Plan

10.

“ORTUS, Home of Maudsley Learning / Duggan Morris Architects | ArchDaily,” accessed January 17, 2020, https:// www.archdaily.com/442707/ortus-home-of-maudsley-learning-duggan-morris-architects.

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ortus learning centre, camberwell

Bottom (Left; Right): Flexible Sunken Part of Ground-Floor; The central atrium brings in adequate natural light to enhance the internal environment and the open stairways around the atrium become key interaction spaces.

Opposite: Exterior Image; showing a subtle datum shift in Landscape to accommodate the sunken ground.

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Make+Play+Sell: Productivity in my Backyard

The third pilot project is developing on a linear site that is rotated perpendicular to the main road such that its length penetrates into the deep block. The site is adjacent to a large retail park in the north; with a long row of terraced mews at the rear and a residential block along the other Southern linear edge.

It would be naïve to not expect a large development to redevelop the entire site along with the retail park, considering the attractive site location and threats to the future of mono-functional retail parks.

But if we were to imagine, that the council retains the ownership of the site; how can the design build capacity and variety onto the site?

In just three years, London has lost 17% of studio spaces. Workspace for artists is estimated to be cut by a further 17% in the next five years.11 A sharp increase in property values in growing towncentres and relaxed planning laws to convert into higher-viable housing schemes have contributed to this problem. Artists are being priced out of the city despite one in six jobs in London being in the creative industry.

The proposition for this site is to accommodate creative industries like artists’ studios, tailoring workshops, culinary studio with a food hall and shared services like exhibition galleries, training rooms and shower spaces. The future of retail, or retail parks, is no longer about provision of space, it is about collaboration of creative sectors to curate multi-programmatic scenarios.

Opposite (Top to Bottom): View from the N-W corner looking toward the Site from the front of Retail Park View of the N-E corner of site from the Service Yard at the rear end Aerial View of Site

11. Mayor of London’s Artists’ Workspace Data Note.

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How should we approach the site in order to address multiple frontages and differential thresholds? One possibility is to build upon the site without considering the edge of adjacent retail shed. In another plausible scenario, we can imagine the ground floor to spill over and extend beyond the site boundary.

How can the design ensure we optimize the potential of the site morphology to integrate the east-west through a creative and civic centre?

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The proposed plan creates two diverse environments, separated with a central atrium. The Western edge facing the main road is a more active front with an open food hall facing the court of retail park and access to culinary workshops and services through the Southern street. The rear end accommodates creative Low Threshold Makerspaces and can utilize the existing service road and yard.

The proposition’s viability is justified based on demands by local initiatives. Council-led Future Brixton programme safeguards and promotes small local enterprise and use its character and identity to develop a local economy focusing on the creative and cultural industries.12 Lambeth’s mission-driven creative practices put inclusive growth at the forefront of their work. The borough has 21 Arts Council National Portfolio Organizations (NPOs) — charities making an outstanding social contribution to enabling cultural excellence and widening participation. They engage with larger organizations such as the Royal Academy and National Portrait Gallery. Organizations including Gasworks (Vauxhall), 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning (Herne Hill), Artist Studio Company (Brixton) and ACME (Stockwell and West Norwood) provide studio space for artists - bringing art outdoors is the inherent logic. Mission Kitchen – a local start-up provides kitchen space and equipment to support aspiring food businesses.13

0

30m

Opposite: Ground Floor Plan The role of a central Atrium to connect two diverse yet co-dependent environments of public domain and LowThreshold Makerspaces on ground and Learning-Making Studios on floors above.

12. “Brixton Masterplan,” n.d., 47.

13. “Creative-Enterprise-Zones_prospectus-2017.Pdf,” accessed November 18, 2019, https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/ default/files/creative-enterprise-zones_prospectus-2017.pdf.

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The entire urban section can be imagined into a productive environment where the yard can be accessed through pedestrian access pierced into the long row of terraced housing block. The deep floor plates offer flexible spaces to allow for reprogramming and mixed-tenure options. The ambition of the project is to foster co-dependent ecosystems of contemporary productivity and retail opportunities in our largely residential environments.

Bottom: Layering of Ground Floor to allow for a Sequential arrangement of productive and leisure environments. Rethinking the performance of Yards in terms of Economic and Social Values Opposite: Aerial Image of the Site depicting an apparent disconnect between the East and West Urban Fabric

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Bottom: East-West Section Demonstrates Differentiated Character through the Length of the Block, strengthening physical and social cohesion.

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Blackhorse yard, walthamstow A very intriguing example of Blackhorse Yard in Walthamstow, by Assemble Architects, is a case in point to prove that such spaces enable multi-layered regeneration. The fully equipped public accessed metal and wood workshop with a small cafĂŠ introduces a productive space in a largely residential urban area. The yard hosts multiple local community initiatives which attract multigenerational crowd through the medium of creativity.

It has created a substantial impact in terms of increasing the numbers working in the creative industries, the teaching of hands on making skills, and in building networks and a stronger sense of community.

Bottom: Blackhorse Workshop sits behind the row of Terraced Houses with their Backyards overlooking the site.

Opposite: Simple Structural Organisation to allow for collaborative environments: Learning, Making, Training.

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Blackhorse yard, walthamstow

Bottom (Clockwise): Cafe, Wood Workshop with Housing in the Background, Main Access through the Yard Opposite: Skill Development and hands-on-training initiatives hosted in the Workshop and Yard.

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The proposition of the three pilot projects show us the latent potential of these small sites in terms of densifying and intensifying the whole area. The spatial framework generates functionally dynamic yet contextually situated projects and highlight the importance of devising innovative typologies. The projects create convenient and flexible environments for different institutions - local residential communities, learning and working sectors, SMEs - to deliver enhanced impacts under a cohesive vision.

So, the key question is what does the collective impact of these pilot projects suggest? How can we redefine the concept of the urban area based on this large cluster of three smaller clusters?

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2.3 collective impact of localised clusters Brixton has all of the urban ingredients to perform better -transport connections, critical mass of skilled people living in or close to its centre; still it struggles to create efficient urban conditions for residents and businesses to thrive.14 But having shown the qualities of innovative built environments, commercial viability and social impact my propositions carry; we can establish that the current understanding (lengths-breadths as well as depths) of BID or, in general, of our business ecologies must be revised.

The new propositions, together with other situated mushrooms of productive spaces, suggest an overlapping layer to enhance the urban conditions to enable an effective multi-layered fabric. The overlay of a distributed network of services and utilities performs in synergy with a concentrated town-centre establishes a concept of the urban area.

This additional layer ensures that SMEs remain in serviced urban locations-embedded in residential communities, collaborators and clients in a knowledge-and-innovation led business ecology, and to engage with a more multi-generational workforce, in exchange for cultural and leisure amenities.

Each new project in the layer, however small, has the potential to regenerate the physical and social infrastructure sooner than most larger developments. Furthermore, in terms of commercial value addition, the crossovers between increased residential quantum and development of employment opportunities eventually feeds back into the coffers of the borough.

The regeneration of the Town-Centre relies upon ensuring that this overlay must be safeguarded (urgently, certainly) across scales of delivery policies, design interventions and regenerative strategies. An integrated response can achieve the regeneration but must include a policy, which might be based upon encouraging BID or creating a BID 2.0, that fundamentally has an expanded remit that would serve the long-term value of the area.

Left, Right: Current Concentrated Centre, Overlay of a Distributed Network to enhance Business and Civic Ecology in addition to the current central BID zone.

14. Read more: “Brixton-Economic-Action-Plan-2017-v1.Pdf.�

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Part 3 Reviewing values and policies

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3.1 viability of distributed quantum The selected site conditions repeat morphologically in the entire wider urban area of Brixton and across London’s fabric. This essentially allows us to consider the design propositions as a prototypical approach, as a starting point. A fairly detailed understanding of the achieved quantum is crucial to project the success of any urban strategy. The proposition when repeated over multiple sites in the larger area, delivers around 150 homes and over 250,000sqft of employment and serviced public domain on less than 3 hectares. It is imperative to acknowledge here that the current propositions can comfortably accommodate higher densities vertically; the current design propositions are just a starting point.

Hence, the proposed scheme is equally viable, if not more, than any other single large development that delivers about 600 homes and 200,000sqft of retail and community services on around 8 hectares. Furthermore, the distributed growth model has additional advantages of lesser upfront financial investments required to develop on small sites and a shorter delivery period than most phase-wise large developments.

The distribution of services, utilities and employment opportunities in small fragments allow for smaller actors and stakeholders to engage in a bottom-up approach and have an embedded scope of autonomy. This parallel layer of productive ecology can fill in the gaps created by concentrated centres of investments and enable socio-economy balance in our local communities.

Opposite: Pilot Projects as a Prototypical Approach on similar site conditions to analyse the limit of achieved Quantum.

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What are the existing polices that directly govern the vocation of small sites or the physical boundary of BID? What are the key recommendations to revise the existing ones or formulate new policies to legitimize and enhance the parallel productive layer? The respective policies must be re-evaluated at all stages of land procurement, site-use orders and extent of BID zones to achieve a cohesive strategy.

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3.2 Challenging policies This research aims at enabling the Local Council as primary site owners, to identify and release the augmented potential in their portfolio of sites and use it to initiate a dialogue between a diverse group of plausible actors, developers and stakeholders.

Another key obstacle in realizing this regenerative strategy is the sites’ use-order, which is essentially determined by multiple policies. A recent H2 Policy lays down high expectations of housing-delivery from the large availability of small sites across London.15 Hence, the boroughs are maintaining a diverse portfolio of small sites- both previously developed and vacant plots. All the three selected sites are uploaded on the national brownfield registry and designated to be redeveloped as solely residential land-use.16 The proposition challenges this existing class-use order of these sites on the premise of them having the potential to provide for the quantum of services and utilities while also accommodating housing demands. A common worldwide issue is reviewing urban problems in isolation, like housing and SMEs, and creating independent policies for each of them. If we hurriedly keep investing into conventional housing projects under a policy like H2, the SMEs which form the backbone of our social and economic capital will be wiped out from our inner peripheries. The SMEs and our residential blocks form a symbiotic relationship and their juxtaposition in our urban fabric delivers socio-economic recurring returns.

Simultaneously, it is imperative to establish that the SMEs (current and potential) must be fostered under a national and local policy and treated as significantly larger than just meanwhile uses.

Against the backdrop of contemporary issues, reports prove that the localized productive clusters must only be expanded and fostered in the near and distant future to tackle issues of sustainability, social cohesion and economic resilience.

Opposite: Large Portfolio of Brownfield sites (Previously built-upon and disused plots) uploaded by the Local Boroughs to be Redeveloped as Housing Schemes.

15. “Mayor_of_london_-_m20_small_sites.Pdf,” accessed July 4, 2019, https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/mayor_ of_london_-_m20_small_sites.pdf.

16. “Housing Sites Mapped: England’s Most Comprehensive Brownfield Land Tool,” accessed July 5, 2019, https:// nhfonline.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=138acd245b6044dab5933d80bb9e3d77&extent=1145874.2229%2C6446382.8191%2C713074.305%2C7507940.268%2C102100.

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What is the extent of this multi-scalar research? What would be the added challenges and opportunities while scaling up beyond a specific borough? How can the research augment social (civic, economic, and environmental) values of other working-districts across London?

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3.3

Extent of Opportunity: Network of Town Centres

In a recent study by the NLA, the emerging London’s working districts were mapped out and one can see an apparent void in the South-London region.17 The increased focus on the Northern town centres, like Angel or Camden, in the past decades had let the Southern town-centres to thrive on their localized networks of micro-businesses. However, lately other town centres similar to Brixton like Peckham, Lewisham, Clapham are struggling to protect losing office spaces against growing housing demands and rising prices along high-streets.

A similar regenerative approach of building innovative typologies across the diverse portfolio of sites embedded within large seas of residential enclaves can foster SMEs to strengthen Londonwide economy. The regenerative strategy will capitalize upon the London-wide emerging trend, where instead of targeting specific geographical areas, companies are now focusing more on a combination of good transport links, sustainable rental costs and locations with inherently exciting character.

A London-wide integrated strategy may also encourage inter-borough negotiations to collectively invest onto strategic small sites to deliver specialized assets, like digital heath database institutes in residential areas, which have benefits at national and even international levels but are not being processed due to value barriers. The ways in which our modern-day boroughs perform is contrary to the clear-distinctive egg diagram from 1943 developed by Patrick Abercrombie. Now the political boundaries of Boroughs fade away with the contemporary patterns of social interaction and dynamic employment opportunities. Policies at national scale should oversee that some small sites become iconic in their procurement and partnership models, enabled by crossovers between boroughs with unique sets of opportunities and assets.

Bottom: Study by NLA Opposite: Network of South-London Town Centres

Deptford Peckham Clapham

Lewisham Brixton

Catford

17. “WRK / LDN,� accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/whats-on/publications/all-nlapublications/wrk-ldn.

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Conclusion

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Small is big The unambiguous intent of the design-led-research is to enhance the embedded potential of small sites in contributing toward an integrated regenerative approach of a large urban area. The research is detailed across scales of policies, procurement, design challenges and delivery models to prove the viability and long-term added value set that these dynamic mixed-use projects carry.

The sporadically distributed network of small productive sites within large residential areas enables a parallel multi-layered growth model in addition to concentrated centres. The parallel layer in our urban ecology fills in the gaps created by the current offers and envisaged growth models of our inner-periphery town centres. The proposition is a rather simple logic, we must safeguard the SMEs by densifying and intensifying small sites so that they are not driven out of our city centres or high streets due to high rental costs or outdated typologies. In return, the SMEs being key agents of social and economic change upgrade the quality of residential environments by introducing endless possibilities of supporting the contemporary entrepreneurial society.

It is truly worrying to our discipline to see same stock of speculative residential developments year after year that add no diversity to our urban fabric and pose greater threat to accommodate SMEs or productive spaces. A flexible stock of diverse spaces can accommodate the growth of a wide range of current and future sectors from - serviced living to community spaces, creative tech to advanced digital manufacturing, culinary art and retail to design-intensive crafts, consultancy services start-ups to small manufacturing set-ups, and the circular economy of maintenance, repair and re-use.

All the three design projects only scratch the surface of what the research of mixed-use typologies can deliver to generate a multi-layered urban fabric. However, they set out a clear direction for the typological entry points in achieving the integrated response. The small yet significant decisions like respecting existing occupants’ privacy, accommodating multiple end-users or future expansions/ demolitions, are key to formulating a successful scheme. The design approach of creating structurally dynamic yet contextually situated buildings creates long-lasting legacies, both spatially and institutionally.

The detailed market research and plausible partnership models prove that these small mixed-use developments can be equally viable to any other conventional project. Hence, it becomes crucial to challenge the current policies and establish the need for them to timely revised before we lose the key components of our society due to a myopic understanding of return-on-investments value barriers. The need of the hour is to formulate a larger cohesive strategy that overlooks housing shortage and employment, cultural and civic spaces. All other esoteric policies, like H2 for Housing or BIDs, should then be revised to adapt to the larger strategy in order to avoid any discrepancies.

The development of enhanced and updated planning policies, area frameworks and re-evaluation of sites at both a regional and local level will support a balanced delivery of mixed productive employment and residential schemes.

Small is Big shows clearly that every small site has the potential to deliver a big change under critical considerations by architects, policymakers, investors, and local council. The ways in which we inhabit cities now echoes the values of 19th century, where intermingled fabric was prevalent before it was replaced by acres of only residential enclaves. In the age where we are combating climate crisis, no inch of land should be developed under misguided expectations, let alone sites of 0.5 Hectares! The re-evaluation of the SMALL will help us deliver a resilient, innovative and inclusive urban development.

Fin.

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References

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12 Top to Bottom: https://thespaces.com/peckham-levels-will-transform-a-car-park-into-aculture-hub/

41-42,44 https://www.archdaily.com/780345/central-london-almshouse-promotessociability-for-the-elderly 47 https://www.google.com/maps

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28

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