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Cover image: Steps at Endeavour Square in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, photographed by John Sturrock £32
Croydon, London Stormz) in pa1tnership with Adidas opens the Merky FC headquarters in south London, a community centre that aims to create opportunities for young Londoners in gaming, music and football. The facilities include a football pitch, changing rooms. state-of-theart recording studio, multi-use spaces and an EA Sports gaming room. Merky FC is a multi-year partnership hetween Stormzy and Adidas which seeks to increase representation of those with Black heritage in leadership positions intthe football industry. Photo: Adidas
Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen This drained riYer Yalleyopened to the public a,; a plea<;ure garden in 1879. It has since been reimagined by LDA Design to welcome a more inclusive demographic through the inclusion of wheelchair and pushclrnir-accessible ramps, a pedestrian link bridge and a slide. Photo: Andrew Lee
Bond Street, London Street skaters enjoy the ··sunda) Stroll~ - a marshalled e\'ent for inlime and quad skaters organised b), London Street Skates. Participation is free and the route is stafled by volunteers.
Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty
London. The children of the Great Ormond Street Hospital school co-created this entrance to the hospital with design studio HAQUE TAN. Entitled the Wild Imaginarium, the digital screens are interactirn, ensuring it is never the same two clays running. Photo: Luke O'Donovan
Canada Water, London Constmction of the Canada Dock, a new 170m-long pedestrian boardwalk oYerwetlands on the Canada Water den!lopment by British Land in Southwark. The bridge was designed by Asif Khan and inspired by Surrey Docks. The wetland is designed by lbwnshend Landscape Architects. Photo: John Sturrock
Salisbury, Wiltshire Artist Hilary Jac:k poses with her work, Sea\;ew, whic:h depicts a house precariously perched and partially sliding down a steep slope, reminding us of how coastal erosion and adYerse weather affect our homes. Seaview is part of the Our Earth exhibition which feah1res works inside and outside Salisbury Cathedral and runs till 6 October. Photo: Finnbarr Webster/Getty
Leeds Knights in armour enter the arena for a practice session ahead of the 2024 Easter International Jousting Tournament held at the city's Royal Armouries Museum. Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty
Hackney Wick, London Walls painted "ith slogans supporting Palestinians in Gaza. Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu/Getty
Manchester Animations projected on to the 1,000 sq m digital ceiling at Printworks, the city's newly relaunched entertainment and leisure complex. The digital ceiling is the largest in Europe. Photo: Ioannis Alexopoulos/Anadolu/Getty the developer
Box-park Wembley, London The FestiYal of Place returns to Boxpark vVembley on 4 July with 700 professionals expected to attend. Run in partnership >withThe DeYeloper. the eYent brings together developers, local authorities, inYestors. design professionals, charities, academics and consultants committed to making a positive social and environmental impact through their work. Photo: John Sturrock
LocatED chief executive Lara Newman and Spud enjoy the TO\m IIall stage supported hy Muse at last year's Festival of Place.
Photo: Harry Richards
FE TI AL FP AC
Morwenna Hall of Related Argent presents Brent Cross Town on The Pineapples Stage at the 2023 Festi\·al of Place.joined by Sam Jarrett of LandsecU+I and Stua1t Rogers from Muse. Photo: John Sturrock
Ringway Centre, Birmingham Demolition of the iconic Ringway Centre has been approved. Desiined in the 1950s by architects James Roberts and Sydney Greenwood, the landmark, part of the Inner Ring Road scheme, was described by Pevsner as "the best piece of mid-20th centm") urban design [in Birmingham]". Historic England refused to list the building while the Twentieth Century Society campaigned to stop demolition, and retrolit and expand it instead. The uplighters reference Le Corbusier in Chandigarh. Photos: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty
Bath Hundreds ofE:-..-tinctionRebellion "red rebels"take to the streets in a mass procession to mark a massive decline of the natural world, particularly in the UK. Nature campaigner Chris Packham joined the procession as a mourn,n.
Co-op Live, Manchester The UK's biggest indoor music wnue had a disastrous opening, cancelling multiple concerts due to snagging, a power suppl) issue and a problem with its IIVAC system. The £365 million. 23,500-capacity venue was developed b) Oak Vie\v Group and designed by
Photo: Martin Pope/Getty
Populous. Pop star Harry Styles is one of its biggest investors. Photo: Ioannis Alexopoulos/Anadolu/Gett)
Finsbury Park, London A person takes a selfie with a ne,\ work by street artist Banksy, which appeared in the social housing block's garden the previous da). Photo: Mark Kerrison/ln Pic.1:ures/Getty
Dovehouse Court, Girton These Passi\'haus-certified almshouses were developed for Girton Town Charity for residents aged over 55 and able to live independent!). Designed by architecture practice Mole, the 15 one-bedroom houses and 10 flats were built with a prefabricated timber stmcture. The homes are folly electnc. Photo: David Butler
The road to gentrification is paved with good intentions
As " 1.11 ·e~ p 1bh }larks and urban greening, ·we111ust grapple ,vith the green space paradox, \\·rites
A decade on from the Games, a walk through the Elysian marshes of London's Olympic Park with its meadows and canals, zingy sports and shopping venues and punk playgrounds would enchant even the most cynical visitor. This public project has created pleasure gardens for the people, \vith expansive green spaces and facilities to die for, generous, varied, beautifully maintained, accessible, inclusive and well-connected. At the time of its reveal, architecture critics bristled at its bombast. But it works.
The park has redefined east London tluough its world-class facilities, childfriendly playfulness and the public lmury of its spaces. As anthropologist Caroline Bennett finds in her interviews with locals (see Placetest, page 86), the park has given London's global citizens a green space to call their own. No Royal Park, its association with the Olympics and its island site have set it apart as an international space tl1at belongs to everyone from anywhere.
The success of its venues, institutions and transport connections has drawn Stratford psychogeographically nearer to the city centre. Once unthinkable, east London's most expensive flat is an £18 million penthouse near the park. What a roaring success. And yet, Stratford has both arrived and stands at a crossroad.
People love the East Village and want to stay in the area but tenants are beginning to complain about being priced out of the young neighbourhood they call home, reporting annual rent increases of25 per cent and energy price rises ofl03 per cent. Their woes echo those longer felt in the neighbourhoods around the park. According to Lloyds Bank, tl1e Olympic boroughs have seen the highest house price growth of any London boroughs since 2012, with areas such as Homerton experiencing increases of over 200 per cent.
Conceived as a project to improve life chances and reduce health inequalities in east London, the Olyn1pic legacy project has much to teach us about how we approach public projects to lock in community benefit. Creating new public parks and greener places is a no-brainer - for biodiversity, air pollution, shade and wellbeing. There are a
number of scientific papers linking leafier streets and local parks with better health and reductions in chronic disease in areas of deprivation. Research methods may differ - some use Google Street View mapped to medical records while otl1ers gather evidence through surveys - but most agree that parks are impactful things. A working hypothesis is that greenery mediates the stress of urban life and encourages walking and exercise.
The green spaces of London's Olyn1pic Park have made a big impact. But the project has come under fire for not building enough social and affordable housing. People close to the project have said that after Boris Johnson was elected mayor of London, a derailed legacy lost its social purpose. The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) defends its record, saying the park has benefited hundreds of thousands of people and, by 2036, the project will have built 33,000 homes - 11,000 affordable. Lyn Garner, chief executive of tl1e LLDC, has written tl1at gentrification is a misnomer because the land was mostly industrial and that the park has transformed "a neglected and underserved part of the city".
The problem is that even the most well-intentioned development can trigger unintended market consequences. The road to gentrification is paved \vith good intentions. It's only recently that research is showing how investment in parks and green spaces can lead to displacement ne>.i, door. We need to welcome this scholarship and learn from it, and the Olympic Park is a useful case study for future public urban greening and climate mitigation projects. In addition, as the neighbourhood is only likely to become more desirable, and with 10 year:s to go, it's not too late to think about how we
might alter its course.
Climate or green gentrification is the process by which urban greening and climate mitigation projects can lead to the disenfranchisement of local residents. While it doesn't happen every time in every place, studies have shown that parks can accelerate genh·ification, pushing up house prices and straining social networks over the longer term. One of the most consistent findings is that green gentrification erodes a sense of community and belonging among long-term, low-income residents, particularly those from racialised groups.
Underlining all the research on gentrification is a home truth: after we unroll that green spine of SUDS, dig those allotments and create greener, better connected, healthier and more equitable places, unless we take steps to preserve the affordability of housing, we are only making a temporary positive social impact on the lives of local residents before turning the screw. Build a major park, sit back and watch the health of the place grow. Until barn! Up go land values, rents and house prices.
In academic circles, this conundrum is known as tl1e green space paradox - the wicked problem of green infrastructure displacing the very residents it's meant to benefit for public healtl1. Academic Isabelle Anguelovski, an expert on green gentrification, highlights this as a major issue for local government. How do you support physical activity and health in deprived neighbourhoods through urban 6'Teening without sparking a faster rise in rents?
The solution is not to stop urban greening. What we need is a mecl1anism to preserve housing affordability for the people ne>.idoor - and we must do so before any greening project is announced. That applies to other place interventions too, such as new transport links or cycling infrastructure. The
Unless \\ 1e take steps to preserye the affordability ofhousing, ,ve ,u·e only 1naking a te1nporary positive social in1pact on the lives oflocal residents before turning the sere\\'. Build a n1ajorpark, sit back and \\'atch the health of the place gro\\r.Until bani! Up go land values, renti;;and ho1L~cprices
Christine Murray. Photo: Anthony Coleman
moment London won the Olympic bid in 2005, speculation became a problem in east London to which policymakers did not have a policy solution. The four Olympic boroughs are home to over a million people. Those living in social housing will have benefited from the transport improvements, the neighbourhood clean-ups,job influx and the park amenities. Low-income private renters will have faced pressure from the rising cost of housing. An article published in The Independent in 2012 described a "tsunami" of foreign buyers and renters in east London driving up the price of homes.
According to academics, the green gentrification cycle unfolds over a decade or t\1110,and begins with resenb11ent and suspicion that investment in green spaces is not designed for the eA;sting community, but those to come. This disenfranchisement can be mitigated with co-design, engagement and public services. At the Olympic Park, Westfield and the Olympic Park facilities are inclusive, so that helps.
What comes next is harder to stop: when long-tem1 residents or their friends or children can't afford to stay in the neighbourhood because they are hit with rent increases, eviction or need a larger home. Housing is a major determinant of health, and moving home a major stressor and psychological shock. Children are pulled from schools. Continuity of healthcare and GPs is lost. Employment is put at risk. Care infrastructure breaks down. But many in council homes will not have been pushed out, apart from those living in the estates vacated for the Games. Social housing solves the problem of gentrification, and we should have built more of it.
In the context of build-to-rent, however,
The gentrification of east l ,ondon around the Olyn1pic Park is not surprising or sotnct hi ng ,ve should shy a,vay fro111 discussing. We need to unpick vd1at 111ighthaYc been done differently to deliYer and lock in the long-tcrn1 social benefits of the park fi>rlow-incornc renters and residents in neighbouring connnunities
gentrification can put investments at risk. Neighbourhoods can death spiral if underoccupancy and population loss takes hold in a genb·ified area. It's worth remembering th at London's most expensive street, Billionaire's Row in north-west London, is effectively abandoned. Urban centres churn - people move in and away. If newcomers can't afford to replace them, the lack of incomers can erode the neighbourhood. This may be playing out in the Olympic borough of Hackney, where six primary schools are being closed or merged due to a rapid and unexpected fall in pupil numbers. The hypothesis is that couples and young families have been priced out of the borough and are not replacing those moving out. Schools are a nexus for social connection, fostering a sense of belonging. They also determine the desirability of a neighbourhood and drive footfall. In 10 years, will the schools in the Olympic Park go the same way?
The answer to green gentrification is to provide and defend access to affordable housing, both for long-term residents to ensure they reap the benefits of urban greening in their community and for the future of the neighbourhood. Anguelovski recommends policy and planning tools such as building and protecting social housing stock and taking measures to prevent displacement, such as evolved and sensitive forms ofrent control (abolished in the UK in 1988) to limit how much landlords can raise rent each year. She also suggests rental subsidies, housing cooperatives and community land trusts. Anguelovski supports building and acquiring genuinely affordable homes in the area undergoing urban greening and making them available to long-tenn locals. The response must be place specific - and must start before the greening is a twinkle in a planner's eye. Research has shown that even the announcement of a future flagship park can drive up property values and kickstart the process.
The LLDC did a lot of of these things. It offers affordable homes to local people first, drawn from the housing lists of the neighbouring boroughs. Garner writes that some 80 per cent of residents moved to the park from other parts of east London. But she admits that creating truly affordable homes at social rent levels has been a challenge, as it is elsewhere in London: "The truth is that until we as a nation grasp the importance of providing low-cost rented accommodation to those who clearly need it and hence put more and longer term funding into the system, then we will continue to see this dilemma playing out:'
Rent control is a hot topic that divides opinion but some fom1 of rental restriction
in areas undergoing urban greening or regeneration would protect low-income neighbours living in private rental accommodation. In some cities, rent control does not apply to new-build housing, alleviating some concerns about viability.
As for the Olympic Park, having lived in east London before and after the Games, I am aware of how the place has changed and keeps changing. On a tour of new housing developments several years ago, I was told that social housing was not a big priority for the boroughs at the time of the bid. They already had affordable homes; what they wanted was to attract new people and investment, create jobs and opportunities for young people, feel that economic boost, shed any stigma and build housing that would bring in professionals. Things have changed significantly in the 20 years since the successful Olympic bid. Perhaps no one trnly imagined the pace or e}..'tentof tl1at cl1ange, and the growth of wealth disparity. The child poverty rate across the Olympic boroughs is around 40 per cent.
The gentrification of east London around the Olympic Park is not surprising or something we should shy away from discussing. We need to unpick what might have been done differently to deliver and lock in the long-term social benefit of this major public project for low-income renters and residents in neighbouring communities. Parks and greening projects are taking place across the UK. We must understand what we got right, and what we can do better. That pastoral green lung, its glittering waterways and majestic Aquatics Centre - what a gift to the public. The study of its social impact should inform future policy and practice. What a legacy that would be.
Christine Murray FRIBA FRIAS is founding editor-in-chief of The Developer and joimcling director of the Festival of Place. Murray has been granted honoraryfellowshipsfrom the RIBA and The Royal Inc01poration of Architects in Scotland for her contribution to architecture through criticism,journalism and equality campaigns
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19 Editor's letter
AJ, we invest in public parks and urban greening, we must grapple with the green space paradox features
26 Public buildings
Good design is an essential glue that holds our civic identity together, and supports our health, wellbeing and economy, says Saral1 Wigglesworth
34 Urban rooms
They have proved an effective space for people to come together and create a future for their local area. But we are still a long way from every town having one, writes Harriet Saddington
42 The resurgence of the lido
Once an essential part of the fabric, despite a lack of council backing, lidos are being restored and run by community groups, reports Harriet Saddington
58 Nag's Head Market
The market's strategic renovation shows how incremental changes can bring existing and future traders together, writes Nyima Murry
66 Siclcup Storyteller
At the end of a decade that has seen 800 library closures, the opening of a new one - combined with cinema and community space - shows they can not only survive but thrive on the high street, says Teshome Douglas-Campbell
Placetest: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park p:16
ii'iiiiliu
A call for better public buildings p26
How communities are reviving lidos p42
Winners of'The Pineapples awards pll2
76 Dutch public housing
The Netherlands is facing a housing crisis. Spaarndamerhart in Amsterdam is part of a move by the city to reverse this, writes Laura Mark
86 Placetest: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Anthropologist Caroline Bennett visits and speaks to locals with exclusive photography by John Sturrock
112 Winners of The Pineapples awards for place 2024
The Pineapples celebrate places that thrive, that contribute to urban life and that make a positive social and environmental impact
142 Photobooth: Rio Cinema, Dalston Marco Ferrari captures visitors and their perspectives in the photobooth
snonsor,..d fe"tures
56 Building bridges to to biodiversity Isabelle Asante, senior development manager at Muse shares the approach to biodiversity, green space and connectivity at Hale Wharf in this sponsored feature
64 Thanks to our members
Featuring the organisation members who support us and make our independent journalism possible
Sidcup Storyteller library and cinema p66
View from a flat in Sidcup Storyteller p66
The good design of civic architecture is the glue that holds our identity together
The built environment can manifest civil order and create a sense of pride in community and public infrastructure, writes •
Waltham Forest Town Hall, formerly kncmn a.';Walthamstow TO\m Ball and completed in 1942, was refurbished by architect Hawkins\Brown. Works included the reinvention ofFellO\vship Square: the old fountain and roads have been jpedestrianised and replaced to create space for markets, festirnls and water play. Photo: Jim Stephenson
nan era increasingly dominated by the virtual, many of our public services are now accessible online. I have no doubt that, for most of us, this is a huge convenience. But the availability of online services has rendered their performance a private transaction and, what's more, only "verifiable" as genuine through the algorithms of the program. Online, the representation of community and civic pride is reduced to the quality of the interface and a logo, but it can never be a substitute for the solid, material sense of belonging that is embodied in our relationship with built fabric and landscapes.
When politicians are fearful of physical contact with the public, we are denied the potential to witness political and civic life in action. To my mind, this raises a concern for how we engage ~vithdemocracy and the representation of our values as reflected in our public institutions. In fact, it asks what the role of buildings as manifestations of civil order have to play in our increasingly atomised, intolerant society.
Once upon a time, wealthy individuals and organisations secured their legacy by constructing monuments to themselves and for the glory of prominent institutions. Through the funding of projects such as churches, hospitals, almshouses and public fountains, there was an e.xpectation of a heavenly reward. In due course, monarchs and religious institutions set the template for the first libraries and art galleries. But as the civic state slowly became responsible for public welfare, so the provision of these civic functions became vested in their institutions, paid for by the public purse.
The great era of civic investment arose during the 19th century with the expansion of statehood and its bureaucracy supplemented by projects aimed at improving public health. This manifested in the design of myriad facilities we still rely on and recognise today. Towns like Bradford, Sheffield and Manchester expressed their confidence by commissioning monumental town halls by some of the most prominent architects of the day while a raft of architects and engineers was pressed into service to design everything from railways, canals, cemeteries, public baths and pumping stations for the new sewerage systems, to government buildings, fire stations, board schools, libraries and even Parliament itself. Public building perhaps reached a high point during the Edwardian era when many structures were built, signifying a sense of pride in community to which everyone, through their taxes, had helped contribute.
Post-war, the cities of Newcastle, Norwich and Derby, and London boroughs such as Walthamstow, Homsey and Kensington &
Chelsea built new town halls and libraries of first-rate architecture. Authorities invested in nurseries and schools whose novel designs were based on years of research into tl1e developmental psychology of children. Sheltered housing and nursing homes were built for the population tl1at had fought in and survived the war. Leisure centres and playing spaces sprang up to answer the need for exercise and sports in urban and suburban populations.
Gradually, ways of working such as the open-plan office landscape, a new social informality, new theories of learning and an expanding IT network all began to question the appropriateness of many of these buildings. Older structures were altered and extended but they were often poorly maintained or considered expensive to run. Maintenance and repair was overlooked so that the public estate became run down and unfit for purpose.
The demise oftl1e public building was accelerated in the era ofl980s privatisation, during which the state's services were outsourced in the name of efficiency. Initiated by tl1e Labour administration in the early 2000s, governments of all colours encouraged new public projects for schools, hospitals and other civic buildings to be financed through joint ventures ben,veen public bodies and market providersPartnerships for Schools (Pf'S), Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) - in order to keep the costs off the Treasury's balance sheet. With construction led by large contractor conglomerates, the aim was always for them to be able to make a profit, and quality was not necessarily top p1iority. But tl1e legal conditions behind these projects have tied up local authorities' funding for 25 years in eiqJensive maintenance and repair contracts.
L ·wasborn 111a local hospital that is no,v a gated housing sche1ne. The firin that I founded converted a board school annexe into a <lancestudio. \\ 7e carried >uta feasibility study into ronverting a Carnegie library into a theatre. All of these buildings had fitllen into disrepair and been abandoned. We could call i1t a lack of care
The state has stood back and taken no responsibility for these results. In 2010, the government ceased funding for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, whose ambition was to rebuild or refurbish every school in the UK, and it stopped funding LEPs in April 2024.
The final chapter of this era of privatisation was marked by the Grenfell Tower disaster, where a combination of deregulation, devolved responsibilities, lack of accountability, cost-cutting, buckpassing and derision for tl1e warnings of the local community led to one of our worst building failures.
I was born in a local hospital that is now a gated housing scheme. The architecture fim1 that I founded converted a board school annexe into a dance studio. We carried out a feasibility study into converting a redundant Carnegie library into a theatre. Subjected to the forces I described, all of these buildings had fallen into disrepair and been abandoned. We could call it a lack of care. Recently, entire schools have been sold and converted into housing. Town halls have been offloaded into private hands and repurposed as night clubs, hotels, fancy restaurants, art centres and private members' venues. Public structures are not alone; theatres have become chmches, warehouses have become homes, while power plants, railway stations and industrial hangars now serve as art galleries. Form no longer identifies function.
The civic estate in the age of austerity Where, then, does this leave us as a shared expression of our identity and pride in our civic culture? Under the current circumstances - society, economics and leaders' priorities - is it possible to create good institutions that mirror the values oftl1e body politic?
Under diminishing local autl1ority budgets, selling publicly owned sites has, of necessity, become one route to procure new or expanded schools, libraries and even town halls. Local autl10rities have moved into speculative office buildings on the back of deals with developers. These structures make no attempt to express civic pride. Their character is generic, unremarkable and everywhere/nowhere. The nemesis of the state's existence is perhaps the benefit office, which wilfully conveys the image of its users as an underclass.
Resorting to speculation to keep public services running is not a local authority's primary skillset. Birmingham's effective bankruptcy has made it a casualty of current policies and funding structures. Its City Library is a bold symptom of its aspiration; its mistake was to be too ambitious.
Herne Hill library, built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie circa 1907. faced protest and occupation over its closure in 2016. Reopened in 2018, part of the building was com·erte<l to create a fitness centre, making library spaces smaller. Photo: Richard Baker/In Pictures, Getty
An open-top bus v\aits outside Stockport TO\m Hall before the cup parade to Edgeley Park to celebrate Stockport Count) FC's promotion to League One in April 2024. Photo by Ryan Jenkinson/MB Media/Getty
Birmingham Library during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The council has effective!) declared bankmptcy and is considering closing 10 libraries across the cit). Save Birmingham is asking the council to h·ansfer the properties into community ownership and create a libraries tmst.
Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty
At the same time, local libraries have been threatened with closure. They have been roped into the culture wars, condemned for serving middle-class interests, and some are now run by local volunteers. Ironically, with recent energy price increases, many have reopened with a new purpose as warm spaces.
The era of austerity has diminished what remains of the civic estate. As the recent RAAC scandal has shown, lack of investment in maintenance and repair in the crumbling estate of the Department for Education (DFE) means crisis management is the default. In a policy context that is reactive rather than strategic, investment is short term, comprising small funding pots made available at short notice. Furthermore, the DFE has downgraded educational space and quality standards and legislated to bar
\'vt' haYelost our sense of a shared identity and purpose; our coherence as a society. Yet indices sho\\' that equality of inco1ne and high-quality public facilities create better outco1nes tor all people, suppo11 their hcaltt and \\'cllheing, create a n1orecontented society, and eYcn save us n1oney in the long run
local authorities from building new schools. Sure Start centres and nurseries under local authority control have been abandoned. Meanwhile, successful private nurseries can invest because they can make large profits for their shareholders.
The care home or nursing home has become a euphemism for lack of care, as Covid-19 demonstrated. Acknowledgement is widespread that there is missing provision for general-needs housing with additional care, which includes age-adapted/adaptable housing and specialist housing for those entering and leaving hospital. But the sly devolution of the care budget into local authority hands in a time of expanding austerity has meant stasis in the ability to address the problem. Only those people witlh money will be able to afford a reasonable quality of life in older age.
As the examples above demonstrate, current government policies have eroded investment in the civic estate. More importantly, the ideology that has brought this about has dimmed our belief in the state's responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. We have shifted so far towards a model in which these services are purchased privately that it now appears strange that they could or should be provided by a nurturing body that has the interests of the whole of society in its sights.
The rolling back of the so-called "nanny state" forgets that many people in the UK rely on it to get by, through benefits, transport subsidies, childcare, free school meals and so on. Yet at the same time, central government has divested responsibility for many of our public services on to the shoulders oflocal authorities (and, of course, charities) without enough funding to support them. Austerity has posed them with harsh choices in regard to funding precedence. Moreover, the culture wars, abetted by the media, have created social division; this led to Brell.it.We have lcost our sense of a shared identity and purpose; our coherence as a society. Yet indices show that equality of income and high-quality public facilities create better outcomes for all people, support their healtl1 and wellbeing, create a more contented society, and even save us money in the long run.
The mantra is: if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it. Yet, clearly, the private philanthropist has not stepped in to plug the gap, despite the widening gulf between rich and poor in the UK, the encouragement to charitable giving and entrepreneurship on the part of public bodies, and the prevailing dogma (although now losing its credibility) of the trickle-down theory of economic improvement. Political cycles repeat the same formulae, employing short-term solutions
that mean crisis management and a lack of long-term investment.
Reinvention
While it may seem a minor issue, we communicate who we are and what we stand for through shared infrastructure and a genuinely representational civic realm, which includes architecture. For those responsible for tl1e built environment, the ethics, identity and character conveyed through our work is key to the narratives we tell ourselves. This can be shoddy, shallow and vulgar, or it can be deep and highly meaningful. It must go well beyond restating the symbols of nationhood - the red/white/blue colourway, the flags, the shirt-emblazoned signifiers that remind us of a more powerful imperial, colonial past.
In seeking to find a new place for ourselves in the world, we would be wise to find a modem, progressive material and spatial language that is inclusive and diverse, and that, at all costs, avoids the bombast and grandiosity typical of dictatorships or of being emblazoned with national emblems. Rather, we should be seeking to dignify public buildings, landscapes and urban areas through quiet, long-lasting, functionally appropriate, ethically sound and sustainable designs that are responsive to local needs and are genuinely of their place. This requires the intimate involvement of thoughtful, ethical creatives.
It is my fervent hope that we have reached the bottom of the cycle in which the state's role is denigrated and undermined. There is an urgent need to curtail the drift towards division and antagonism, and work on building a shared vision for our collective future. We need a different kind ofleadership; one that creates pride in collective, civic ideals and shared values. Of greatest importance are long-term strategies and policies and the environments that nurture them, that support people to live healthy, sustainable, fulfilling lives.
Architects, planners and civil servants can contribute to this project by foregrounding the importance of a well-designed, equitable environment and by demonstrating that pride in our public realm and civic infrastructure can make us feel good about ourselves. It can mirror our best selves back to us.
To achieve this, our public authorities must step up and become more ambitious champions of good design rather than dabbling in land speculation. Solving current procurement practice is critical. Local authorities, which procure public projects, have become de-skilled and demoralised as they have been starved of funding. Public
Classroom inside Whitehorse Manor Junior School at Pegasus Academy, built in 2014 in Thornton Heath and designed b) architec.1:Hayhurst and Co. Photo: Anthony Coleman/View/Universal Images Group/Getty
procurement is dogged by a culture of riskaversion, and lack of vision and purpose. Tenders are, more frequently than not, controlled by managers who know little about good buildings, how to recognise them and how to achieve them, and so often lack focus on key goals. All too often, the architect-led team has to do this thinking for the client.
Missions like Public Practice can help provide public authorities with missing skills, although their work can be short term and on a small scale. Are they doing enough to shift the dial sufficiently so tl1at they can make meaningful change? Imagine what could happen if this could upscale. A seismic shift will be required for local authorities and otl1er public entities to understand the value of design, employ committed people to achieve it, and pay design fees commensurate with the work involved.
The best environments are those in which the client puts in the work. It is not a "product" to be released by the designer's wild imagination or the output of a recognisable brand with a high-profile creative team. Increased paperwork is no substitute for targeted background information, careful briefing and clarity of intent. In selection procedures, the criteria for assessment are mostly heavy-handed, generic, tick-box and concerned with risk mitigation. Tenders are too complicated and too expensive for many practices. The usual roster of winners needs refreshing by encouraging new blood while sharing risk equitably betv,een all members of the project team, including the client. Realism in matching expectations with fees is essential.
The addition of"social value" criteria in tenders had the welcome aim of factoring in the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of building users and tl1e wider community. Yet it has created a further layer of bureaucracy and debasement. My firm has observed the criteria for assessment to be variously obscure, arbitrary and/or frequently monetised, making them both unreasonable and unaffordable. By monetising outcomes, architectural practices that themselves operate a socially regressive working culture can game the system and buy their way into ,vinning, increasing tl1eir economic dominance. This is failing to have the desired effect of changing bad behaviour in our own industry.
Finally, it is clear that the Design and Build (D&B) contract, typically favoured by the public sector, is not working as a mechanism to balance cost and quality. Its original aim was to offer a client a fixed, final cost for a construction project. Under D&B, a full set of details would not typically be required at tender, with the intention iliat
An e:-..-tensionto K.ingsgate Primary School for Camden Council, designed by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and completed in 2018. Photo: Becc) Lane
tl1e novated design team would develop a final technical package that incorporated tl1e contractor's market knowledge. In practice, this requires full contractor engagement (not always forthcoming). Moreover, to preserve profits, the costs of this ·'risk" are hidden from scrutiny. Specifications, together with subcontractors' prices, are dumbed down (as at Grenfell). Accordingly, the D&B contract means contractors hold power over clients. It conceals the price ofrisk and the profits from view and often produces a substandard outcome. The current trend fo1r changing design teams following planning approval also means crucial information about client aims and design intent are lost. This is a critical omission in the face of the attention necessary to address issues of climate change, and means there is a high chance the resulting building will not meet its performance goals. This is not the fault of the design team but a sh·uctural weakness in procurement.
Investing in good design
We need a nationwide conversation about the value of good design, about spatial equity and about the conttibution oftl1e built environment to our identity, efficiency and wellbeing. Good design is not a niche product for those that can afford it; it is an essential glue that holds our civic identity together, supports our health and wellbeing and our economy, and it needs nurturing. Ifwe do not address this, we are destined to discredit our civic estate with proposals that undem1ine our sense of self, that lack design ambition or that are destroyed by budget cutting. This has psychological as well as economic consequences. Our citizens deserve better.
In our current situation - as a combination of broader policy, governmental, cultural conditions and within tl1e construction industry - it is hard to see how
we can produce a civic realm of sufficient quality to make us proud. We do not need ostentatious structures but quiet, wellconceived, uplifting and efficient design that honours those that work in, visit and view them.
I look back enviously at projects such as Rafael Moneo's City Hall in Murcia, EMBT's extension to the town hall in Utrecht or its Santa Caterina market hall in Barcelona and the Danish school estate of the 1990s. I fondly recall tl1e era of BSF, so cruelly cancelled, incomplete, by Michael Gove when he became education secretary, with consequences for today's UK schools. I envy tl1e current public infrash·ucture investment in France, Spain and Switzerland, where travel is made joyful. I think of the care homes that Belgium is investing in, certain in the knowledge that a civilised society is concerned for the welfare of its older people. I yearn for a society in which our built culture speaks about what is best about us and that dignifies us as a nation. If these cultures can do it, we can too.
In a new paradign1, if we could make concerted efforts to skill up, invest for the long term, solve our procurement crisis and support new design talent while constructing a sense of our collective future, we could achieve a wonderful, meaningful public building infrastructure. To do this we must apply different values to our public realm and reinvent our civil powers to citizens' benefit. I fervently hope enough people in the next generation are motivated towards this goal so that we can produce a civic realm to be proud of.
Sarah Wigglesworth is an architect based in London and founding director of Sarah Wigglesw01thArchitects, a practice committed to social and environmental sustainability, which closed in 2024. She was professor of architecture at the University of Shef!ieldfrom 1997-2016
Santa Caterina Market, Barcelona, designed by El\1BT with mosaic by Toni Comella.
Photo: Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group/Getty
Urban roollls for illlprovement: We ne:ed lllore of thelll
They have proved an effective space for pe 1ople to come together andl create a future for thteir local area. But we ar(~still a long way fron1 ever:y to\Vll having one, w-rites )
Croydon Urban Room has a distincti\'e orange colom theme and the room is fitted out with moYeable furnitme. multi-tier tables on wheels, cork boards, hooks and hangers, foam blocks and a curtain to subdh;de the space. Photo: Jim Stephenson
ou may think you've been to an urban room but chances are you are thinking of a space for public consultation. Urban rooms a.re about place but they are not sectorspecific, or choreographed by developers. They are a space for people to come together to create a future for their local areacreatively, equally, and openly.
In 2014 the independent Farrell Review for the Built Environment recommended that every town and city centre should have an urban room.
An urban room is a physical space but can take many forms - from a vacant highstreet shop to a milk float or a tree house; a collection offoldable furniture to a shipping container. Ideally they are located centrally to the communities they service, even in a car park, a supermarket foyer or a public square. Some are open for a short stint of weeks (Church Street, Westminster), others operate for years (Folkestone) or pop up as a pilot and return as a permanent fixture (Croydon).
Ten years on from the Farrell Review, we are still a long way from every centre having one - with eleven live, nine upcoming and fifteen pilot/previous urban rooms. But these statistics do not reflect the commitment of those making them happen. The Urban Rooms Network, formed in 2015, has produced a "toolkit" covering everything from funding to activities. But acknowledging that there is not a one-size-fits-all model and that establishing and maintaining an urban room is an evolving and site-specific process, Urban Rooms Network chairs Carolyn Butterworth and Diane Dever followed up the toolkit with a "roadshow". They visited places across the country, sharing knowledge and brainstorming how to ensure urban rooms connect with local initiatives while also building customised roadmaps for their implementation.
Having a place to debate your area's future is not a new concept, witness 1970s urban study centres and millennium architecture centres. But this new wave of urban rooms is different. They are intentionally neutral, open-door, jargon-free, decentralised spaces, claiming a role as "honest broker". Embracing a creative approach, they are intended to tackle local people's belief that they are powerless in the top-down planning process.
A unique feature of the UK urban room (unlike those found in other countries) is that it is not defined by one sector's agenda or funded by a single-interest group. This capacity for constant reinvention - and appeal to multiple funding pots - helps secure their longevity.
Folkestone demonstrates this with its eight-year old urban room, now in its third location at the fom1er tourist office.
Croydon Urhan Room occupies a vacant unit in the vVhitgift shopping centre
It has been masterminded by Dever, who comes from an arts background and has a creative approach which has seen the centre thrive, attracting multiple funding pots and a diverse audience. Most recently it was a nightclub for a month (the town lacks one), and now it supports varied functions alongside its urban room day job, hosting male mental health sessions, skater groups and international artists.
Dever recognises that in an area of regeneration such as Folkestone, the centre's activity must be constantly refocused to ensure no one audience is favoured. As the advice in the toolkit highlights, audiences for an urban room aren't a generalised "the community" but layers of specific connections with local individuals and groups, which in turn bring in new diverse audiences. They may go in to discuss one thing and come out having debated another.
Art helps. "Art points; it can't solve;' says Dever. "Artists have a way of breaking down barriers, getting people to cross thresholds. People don't realise they're necessarily beini~ invited into a dialogue around place until they're through the door."
In Folkestone, multidisciplinary practice The Decorators designed bright pink moveable furniture and stages that identify the urban room as it moves locations. This kind of iconic, aesthetically recognisable branding is important for collective awareness and familiarity with the role these rooms serve.
The interior of Newcastle Farrell Centre's three urban rooms (named Plan, Build and Participate) were designed by arcl1itect Mat Barnes of CAN, who has brought playful humour through repurposed construction furniture. Twists like 3D-printed ornamental oriel windows replace ordinary scaffold caps on tl1e seats, hazard stripes mark signage and
Farrell Centre director Owen Hopkins says they are "spaces that have the capacity to change, with a provisional quality that is of the city, outside and inside". Here Little Builders soft-play and events like Tea at 3 (pm) or talks on low-traffic-neighbourhoods (a hot topic bringing in over 100 people) encourage a spectrum of conversations.
When asked about the rooms' success so far, Hopkins says: "People tluough tl1e door is one measure of success or impact but it's not the only one. We're also interested in the level of engagement tl1at we're making with people and what counts as a visit. We have people who come here and spend an hour of their time, who are regular, or bring their kids every week. Ultimately, we exist to effect positive change in the built environment and a fundamental challenge is working out how we begin to measure that:'
After a pilot in 2019, Croydon's permanent urban room has just opened (April 2024) in a vacant unit in the VVhitgiftshopping centre thanks to commitment from tl1e local authority. Orange is the memorable colour theme and the room is fitted out with moveable furniture, multi-tier tables on wheels, cork boards, hooks and hangers, foam blocks and a curtain to subdivide tl1e space.
In Nottingham, the city council's senior principal urban design and conservation o'fficerLaura.Alvarez led their 20182020 urban room as part of the council's Co-PLACE programme. It was used by tl1e local authority for CPDs, to encourage departments to talk to each other in the space as well as engage in local discussions that they might previously have been nervous about. At an urban room "social eating"
"People through the door is one n1easurc of success or itnpact but it's not the only one. We're also interested in the level of engagcn1ent that ,ve're 1naking with people and what counts as a Yisit. Clthnately, ,vc exist to effect positiYc change in the built enYirontucnt and a funda1nental chalk·ngeis ,vorking out ho\\ 1 ,ve begin to 1neasure tl1at"
Blackbum is Open. an mban room created in the immediate aftermath of the Farrell Report in 20l4
Bright pink moveable furniture by multidisciplinary practice The Decorators identifies Folkestone's urban room as it moves locations
Visitors enjoy a display at Croydon Urban Room. Photo: Jim Stephenson
session, display boards would be stripped of their logos and name badges were title-free, with everyone having the same right to the space and opportunity to give their views.
Advances in digital interactivity - whether augmented reality or digital mapping provide a complementary resource but can never replace the events-based, in-person role of a physical space. As Butterworth says: "To have really meaningful co-production and engagement about place in all its specifics you need to be there to maintain that human connection between the room, the people that visit and the wider place:' A hybrid model, such as the one adopted by Rochdale, is a pragmatic solution, as is Nottingham's model of a physical pilot - a digital presence through the pandemic and now awaiting a physical site.
For the Urban Rooms Network's 28 core members, the barrier for many is finding a physical site. Meanwhile they are preparing and galvanising research and enthusiasm - as at Cambridge where a recent ideas competition for a logo and concept was won by the Can1bridge studio of architecture practice Allies and Morrison.
The plethora of vacant high-street shops might appear an ideal site solution but the reality turns out to be more complicated. The problem is not only getting hold of these spaces but having a sense of agency and keeping that on a sustained basis when you might have a precarious lease arrangement or lack the capacity to negotiate business rates. The network helps with tactics, such as linking with charitable organisations for relief on business rates. Sheffield Live Works shows the practical value of this new typology for the high street, teaming up with social enterprise Aalfy's maker space and creating a bridge between the academic and city community.
Evidence of urban rooms' positive impact is essential to further their cause. The network is full of anecdotes of the emotional and physical benefits derived from community enhancements to new developments or the value of a mediator in an area of significant change, such as Castlegate, Sheffield. But another way to gauge the success of urban rooms is by the foture fonding they enable. For access to fonding pots, such as the Levelling Up Fund or the Commonwealth Games cultural legacy pot, local places must demonstrate their p1iorities and needs over a long period (often years) through situated, authentic engagement.
Having an urban room was key to the Welsh town ofRutl1in being well-placed to receive fonding. After eight years of community visioning in its urban room, when the Levelling Up Fund called for
Kingston Upon Thames's Urban Room opene<l in January 2023 at the Old Market House in Kingston's town centre.
Photo: The Kingston Society
projects to be submitted, Ruthin had six or seven ready to go. It benefited from investment due to work it had already done - unknowingly but in the best interests of the town. Urban rooms have a crucial role to play in the meaningfol and relevant spend and prioritisation of fonding.
Success can be measured but it might be too early to define what failure is. Of the 15 urban rooms tl1at no longer eidst, many were only intended as pilots or for a specific period and so can't be classed as failures. Others whose physical premises fell through (some, like Nottingham, due to Covid) have moved to a website until they can return to a location. Asked about the Nottingham room's closure, Alvarez says: "Maybe a room is not sustainable in its current form but that's not failure. Did it achieve what we set out to? Yes. Did it last as long as we wanted? No:' The nature of urban rooms' loose definition and therefore open interpretation makes it difficult to compare them. But the common theme in success is having an unwavering local custodian, a wide programme of events and continual ambition to do more, better.
For urban rooms to become the go-to town-centre forum for community engagement, they need to reach a critical mass. If every town centre had one, they would be somewhere people understood and knew about to visit, revisit and feel listened
to. There is a toolkit, a network and a host of cross-sector entlrnsiasts. Sources of funding are available. The government now needs to recognise tl1eir value and mandate them, perhaps through the Office for Place.
As Dever puts it: "How are councils going to involve people in design codes as per the planning reform bill? Who is going to resource that in a meaningfol way so that developers really have to take into account what makes sense locally? How can local communities leverage on Section 106 or other ways of bringing money into communities if they don't know it's possible? For relatively low investment tl1ere is a mechanism here that's tried and tested, that could genuinely and meaningfully deliver on some of those needs."
Urban rooms could also play an important role in climate awareness. Butterworth points to the use of storytelling in many urban rooms for tl1inking positively about the future. "Storytelling about tl1e past very quickly turns into storytelling about futures;' she says. "You can start to think about change, how people can cope and support each other through it, and feel agents of change rather than tl1ings just being done to them."
Internationally, other countries use and support mban rooms in different ways. They are municipality-supported in Italy and focused around a city model in Singapore. Melbourne's M-Pavilion is inspiring. Here an architect-design pavilion (the latest by Tadao Ando) is the centre for an annual festival. Once used, it goes on to be a community centre, just like an urban room, in the heart of a neighbourhood. There are now five M-Pavilions. Imagine a parallel with the Serpentine Pavilions (there have been 22) and how tl1e UK scene might be different if these had been relocated to neighbourhoods after their summer stint to become community centres and urban rooms.
The steady increase in urban rooms has escalated post-Covid as local communities have gained a heightened awareness of connections to place, health and wellbeing and the changes happening in their towns. The term "urban room" pops up frequently in reference to community participation but it needs to be less of a buzzword and more of a baseline infrastructure. This doesn't mean that anyone can set up in a vacant shop and call it an urban room. As the network explains, they need to be values-driven and they require proper cu ration and facilitation.
Haniet Saddington is a w1iter and architect with a background degree in architectural history who works with architecture practices and developers with afocu.s on soci-alimpact
fa,-perience
Castlegate, an augmented reality installation in Sheffield, has been Yiewed bj 1,500 people, raising awareness of the historic importance of the site, which is undergoing significant change.
Pooling resources:
The resurgence of the lido
Once an essential part of the fabric, despite a lack of council backing, lidos are being restored and run by community groups, -writes
Bude Sea Pool in Cornwall, built in the 1930s, is run b~the Friends of Bu<leSea Pool. Entrance is free with no booking. The charit) receives no regular council or go,·ernment fonding. Photo: Nik Taylor/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty
s a public lido a community hnairy or an essential part of our urban fabric? In the lido heyday of the 1930s they certainly thought the latter. At its peak the UK boasted 300 active lidos.
Outdoor swimming was not a new phenomenon but this post-war embrace coincided with intense public investment, new-found freedom, and architectural flair. The ambition was for London to be "a city of lidos" with everyone in walking distance of one. By the end of the 1930s, the capital had 68. Lidos were classless and joyful. But they were almost entirely reliant on council funding and operation. So when the subsidisation tap got turned off in the 1960s in favour of a mandate for indoor pools, these once-thriving community hubs fell into disrepair, were filled in or were simply demolished.
A century on, 2023 was ambitiously hailed the "year of the lido". There are now 134 active UK lidos with at least three (re)opening their doors last year and many investing in redevelopment or announcing new projects. Meanwhile Penzance's Jubilee Pool won the 2023 MacEwen award, celebrating architecture for the common good. But is this just nostalgia for a lido renaissance? Can outdoor pools like this prove long-lasting, appropriate in a climate emergency and inclusively serve communities in the 21st century?
The Future Lidos Toolkit, launched in February, answers these questions head on. Made possible by a £100,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Ftmd, it is as appealing to avid lido enthusiasts as sceptics craving data, and full of evidence that the benefits of a lido project can outweigh the complexities.
"When the transfer of a lido fro111a council to conununity o,vncrship is done ,veil, it's through funding and planned transition. When not thoughtfull) done, it can he a liabilitv transfer ., rather than an asset transfer, ,vhich puts enorn1ous pressure on conununity groups to skill up rapidly and undertake f undraising''
Future Lidos is an informal network of projects across the UK and Ireland and its free-to-access toolkit provides assistance to future lidos needing help on how to start, operating lidos wanting advice on how to thrive, and at-risk lidos desperate for a turnaround roadmap. A common paradox for at-risk lidos is that when councils struggle to prop them up, passionate community groups step in to save them - so providing an opportunity for councils to wash their hands of them.
In the 1930s, lidos were almost entirely council-owned and operated - the exceptions being those funded by mining unions or companies, such as one at Port Sunlight for factory workers, closed in 1970. Today most lidos still have the council as the site's freehold owner but the leaseholder and operator is a lido organisation, commonly a community interest company (CIC) or community benefit society (CBS). These organisations range from 100 per cent community volunteer-led (paying only the lifeguards) to 100 per cent leisure operated (like Better Health at London Fields Lido).
The success of the transfer from council to community ownership varies. As Future Lidos director Deborah Aydon says: "When it's done well, it's through funding and planned transition. When not thoughtfully done, it can be a liability transfer rather than an asset transfer, which puts enormous pressure on charities and community groups to skill up rapidly and undertake fundraising. And the management of pools is complex:· Adding further strain, applications for leisure facility funding from Sports England must be submitted by a local authority. Therefore, independent community organisations are still forced to go via their council for funding, even though those councils are also directly competing to keep their other leisure facilities afloat.
The physical and mental health benefits of access to water (termed "blue space") are increasingly appreciated and the popularity of outdoor swimming has grown e>..1Jonential1ysince the pandemic. A recent
study revealed that the health benefits of green spaces are not shared equally; the same scrutiny must therefore be applied to blue spaces. Anecdotally there is evidence that lidos can be more accessible and approachable tl1an leisure centres. The latter can bring negative connotations of sport and skills or memories of school. The evidence for this is something that Aydon says the next phase of Future Lidos Pooling Resources would look to e>..1)lore."There's a good evidence base for tl1e social and economic benefits of swimming generally," she says. '·We'd like to focus specifically on lidos, which we believe are uniquely able to generate value through their powerful sense of community, openness and generosity, and a deep sense of place."
Location is everytl1ing for inclusivity. Future Lidos steering group member and architect Chris Romer-Lee believes that pools are essential, not a public luxury, and should be part of the infrastrudure of our towns and cities. "Alot, ifnot all, lidos were built adjacent to or in a public park," he points out, "intentionally placed in the centre of that community, ensuring access for all and strengthening those communities."
The multiple functions surrounding the pool are key, whether that's splash-pads for kids (Northcroft Lido in Newbury, which reopened in 2023) or cafe and event space. At Sea Lanes in Brighton, a meanwhile scheme brought footfall before the pool opened. At Tarlair on a remote Scottish coast in Aberdeenshire, Romer-Lee's practice Studio Octopi is restoring the art-deco cafe ahead of the pool phase.
In Ware, Hertfordshire, the council's wedding planner, Kat Harter, became the lido manager during Covid (weddings were off but outdoor swimming was allowed). She brought a unique entrepreneurial spirit to the operation of the pool, which in 2019 was in debt and on the brink of closure. A rare case of a lido run and owned by the council, on the strength of 95 per cent support following a wide community consultation, it was able to borrow to fund its £1 million renovation. This included air-source heat pumps and making the pool one-third shaUower, which dramatically reduced bills (less water to heat and pump). The pool is now open all year round, with no heating in the winter months The cold-water swimmers don't want the heating back on for fear of attracting the chaos of fair-water swimmers!
Describing the atmosphere of the postwinter-swim cup of tea, Harter says: "We need to harness the energy of this group. Evet}'Onegets out and feels revived, al1 in a mentally good place. It's an avenue of the lido community we never had in the summer:'
N"orthcroft Lido in Newbury. Photo: \Vest Berkshire Council
Bnilt in 1815, closed in 1984. Cleveland Pools. Bath. was saYed hy locals who founded the Cleveland Pools Trnst in 2004. Photo: Suzy Slemen
Ware Priory Lido was built in 1934 and reforbished in 2016 and 2023
Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Cornwall, was upgraded with a geothermal borehole proYiding a natural and low-cost method of heating the water. The restoration, desi1:,rnedb} Scott ½11itby Studio, was partially funded by a public share offer. Photo: Hugh R Hastings/Getty
Section of Jubilee Pool
Despite no grand building, Ware lido is hosting multiple initiatives: tackling loneliness, drowning-prevention week, its 90th birthday in June, a dog swim, a cinema night (watching Jaws in a mbber ring!) and a Christmas day swim. Harter shares the experiences through Future Lidos and encourages others to stay open during the winter months. Funding is often not available if you're only open May to September.
In the early 20th century lido golden age, it was a badge of honour for a council to not only have a lido but make it architecturally striking. This competitive spirit was productive. Praise is due to those councils that are recognising the benefit todaymost recently Ealing, Redbridge, Hull (reopened in 2023 after 30 years), Plymouth and Portsmouth.
The story of the Peckham Lido in southeast London is a dismal contrast. The pool had been grassed over in the 1980s but Soutlnvark Council financially contributed to the enthusiastic "splasbmob" campaign to resurrect it with nearly £64,000 raised in 68 days. Studio Octopi led the feasibility study, which proved the pool could turn a profit, but the project has stalled, witl1silence from Southwark since 2018.
l)escrihing the ahuosphere of the post-,vinter-s,viin cup of tea, the n1anagcr of Ware I.i<losays: "\iVeneed to harness the energy of this group. Everyone gets out an<lfi..~clsreviYed,all in a n1entally g"<>odplace. It's an avenue of the lido conununity\\re nen~rhad ii the sununer"
The flipside of enthusiastic communities is stretched council budgets and a wave of indoor leisure centres closing as energy and maintenance costs soar. The climate crisis makes it hard to justify heating open-air pools when hot water just evaporates. The challenges are exacerbated by the design of existing lido buildings, often reminiscent of ocean-liners with their curved concrete structures, sun decks and diving boards. They frequently have only single glazing and lack insulation while heritage listings can prevent alterations or installation of PV panels, posing significant hurdles to modernisation and energy efficiency efforts But up and down the country, lidos are coming up with solutions and tl1ese are captured in the Future Lidos Toolkit.
The Jubilee Pool in Penzance is tl1e UK's second geothem1ally heated pool, after the first by the Romans in Bath (perhaps 70AD). It was a massive endeavour, costing £1.8 million and including accessing the geothermal well at a depth of 410m. Nearly £540,000 of the funding came from a public share offer. There are now 1,400 shareholders of which 970 are locals. The project has brought investment and visitors to Penzance, the neighbourhood with
the second highest deprivation levels in Cornwall.
Architect Alex Scott-Whitby, whose practice carried out the restoration, says: "The pool has created a space for a town that feels luxurious. It has engendered a sense of place to Penzance and given confidence to the town."
The community benefit society has forged a range of"social prescribing" partnerships, helping health conditions such as dementia, type-two diabetes and obesity, and building musculoskeletal healtl1 as well as subsidising tickets for children. Describing the decadelong endeavour, Scott-Whitby says: "The council would never have been able to do this. It requires courageous members of the community." However, despite best intentions to stay open all-year round, rising costs have kept the pool closed for the winter.
Geothermal heating is not possible everywhere and comes with a hefty price tag. Other alternative energy models include river-source heat pump (Cleveland Pools), air-source heat pump (Ware) solar panels (London Fields) and hydro turbines (Thames Lido). Another method is to use waste energy from data centres. It seems a no-brainer; they have to get rid of their heat and the pools need the heat. The technique is being trialled to heat an indoor pool in Exmouth, and renewable energy supplier Octopus has just pledged £200 million to roll tl1is out in 150 locations, although no outdoor pools have been confirmed for this.
Brighton's Sea Lanes, which opened last year, is another new model: a freshwater pool on the beach. On a site with no lido backstory, somewhere between indoor and outdoor temperatures (heated to 19°C all year round), it is a training rather than leisure pool, calling itself the National Open Water Swimming Centre. The developers took a fabric-first approach with a shallower pool, thermal cover, additional insulation to sides and bottom and a Perspex fence surrounding it against the wind. Unable
Site plan of Jubilee Pool
Jubilee Pool aerial an<lsection: The sunken cafe space is below street level an<l opens to the lido. Photo: EyeOnlligh
In addition to its works to the Jubilee Pool itself; Scott Whitby Studio e::...tendedthe cafe and created a community hall. Photo: Jim Stephenson
Visualisation for the ongoing project to revive the disused 1930s open-air swimming pool in Tarlair, Aberdeenshire. Image: Studio Octopi
Aerial photo ofTarlair: The project is undergoing phased restoration led by the Friends of'Ta rlair with Studio Octopi. Photo: Ryan McKenzie
Tinside Lido on the Plymouth seafront is a 1930s outdoor saltwater s\\imming pool which was refurbished in 2002. A recent condition report by Purcell revealed that the pool is in need of urgent repairs. Photo: Peter Titmuss/UCG/UniYersal Images Group/Getty
to use solar power (the PV array would have taken up 5,200 sq m of the beach), or ground-source (due to storm drains), the pool is heated by natural gas but is hydrogenready. Data is being intensely monitored to measure the impact of wind, rainfall and solar irradiation on temperature levels in the pool and energy-use.
Tidal sea pools are included in the Future Lidos network, including La Vallette in Guernsey, shortlisted for a 2023 RIBA Award. And for those without access to the sea but looking for a natural swim model, there is Lewisham's investment in Beckenham Place Park. Here, a former golf course has been repurposed into a public park featuring an artificial freshwater swimming lake. The initiative aims to reconnect communities with nature, providing opportunities for outdoor recreation and environmental appreciation without the need for water-heating or changing rooms
Since 2021, over 30 future lido schemes have emerged, nurtured by the Future Lidos Toolkit. They include East London Waterworks with a campaign to transform the Than1es Water Depot (currently under threat of development by others).
Romer-Lee says: "Lidos are considerably cheaper to build than leisure centres and our objective is (and the toolkit will begin to show) that they are cheaper to run as well if you get it right." Getting it right clearly means being in the centre of communities and programming a multiplicity of activities and audiences.
Swimming is said to save the NHS £357 million a year through its positive effect on physical and mental conditions, and generate more than £2.4 billion of social value each year. But we need to dive deeper to evidence the benefit that a new wave of lidos can bring. What the last century has taught us is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all model and that - regardless of architectural flair - lidos need commercial strength to survive without council support. They need to be specific to the community iliey serve and be far more than a pavilion and a pool. Passionate local communities recognise this and the Future Lido Toolkit supports it. Now we need the investment to catch up.
Harriet Saddington is a writer and architect with a background degree in architectural history who works with architecture practices and developers with a focus on social impact
Parliament Ilill Fields Lido in Gospel Oak, Camden. opened in 1938 as one ofl3 lidos built by London County Council between 1909 <md 1939. The pool is open to the public 365 days a year and is free for those under 16 or over 60. Photo: Historic England/Getty
Building bridges to biodiversity
In one of the capital's lesser-known nature reserves you will find a diverse mix of green and blue space spanning 10 acres in Zone 3.
Located within the London Borough of Haringey, the Paddock Community Nature Reserve is formed of a diverse environment of woodland, scrub, meadow, ponds and surrounding rivers that support a range of mammals, birds, insects and plants.
It spreads out on the opposite side of the Lee Navigation to a site where Waterside Places is introducing a diverse mix of new homes in the waterside area that is Hale Wharf
Knowing the significance of green space like the Paddock within a densely populated area like Tottenham Hale, the project team recognised the importance oflooking beyond the red lines and how to connect its existing and emerging community to this space, improving accessibility.
The question wasn't if a bridge could be built to connect local people to nature, but how.
Hale Wharf is being delivered by Waterside Places - a strategic joint venture between Canal & River Trust and Musein partnership with the Mayor of London and the London Borough of Haringey. The wider scheme is one of the Mayor of London's Housing Zones, with 505 homes being delivered, of which 191 are classified as affordable rent. Hale Wharf is making an important contribution to the mayor's and the Greater London Authority's aspiration for 2,000 new homes in the borough.
As with all Waterside Places developments, the water's edge will be regenerated thanks to upgrades of access routes for commercial barges as well as canal wall repairs and the addition of floating reed beds.
In 2021, the first phase of249 new mixedtenure homes was completed along with the new Hale Wharf Bridge, which now provides a vital link between Hale Wharf and the Paddock. This bridge is also an important piece of infrastructure, providing energy to the site from the nearby Hale Village.
The brand new, architecturally striking, accessible Hale Wharf Bridge has created value for the community in many ways but not least through safety. Previously, those looking to access Tottenham Hale from Hale Wharf on foot had to walk along Ferry Lane, a busy road which was poorly lit and unwelcoming at times. Since the bridge opened, the local community are more likely to cross the River Lee Navigation and enjoy Hale Wharf, and vice versa. Residents have felt safer in the area, all contributing to a better quality of life in Tottenham Hale and encouraging people to walk to the Paddock and reap the benefits of spending time in nature.
Reconnecting communjties with nature
Recently, the mayor's New London Plan has outlined how a well-planned and managed green infrastructure network ""ill be vital in helping the city stay healthy and liveable as the population continues to grow, adding pressure for land to build good quality homes, schools, hospitals and places of work, witl1 up to three million more people expec.1:edto live in the capital by 2050.
Locations like the Paddock provide an immeasurable amount of value to communities tl1at surround them - but it is vital that tl1ey are safe, accessible and well maintained.
The Paddock had been in a state of disrepair for several years and, as a result, the Conservation Volunteers were appointed to manage tl1e site from November 2020, now employing two full-time members of
Since the bridge opened, the local community are more likely to cross the River Lee Navigation and enjoy Hale Wharf, and vice versa. Residents have felt safer in the area, all contributing to a better quality of life in Tottenhan, Hale and encouraging people to reap the benefits of spending time in naturei
staff that carry out practical management, surveying, and engagement with locals.
One of the key objectives during planning discussions for tlie Hale Wharf was the creation of a new pedestrian bridge directly to the Paddock to activate the site and ensure a pedestrian link between Tottenham Hale Station and tl1e Paddock. In addition, through the Section 106 Agreement, the scheme provided contributions for the delivery of significant upgrades to the Paddock, including the removal of Japanese Knotweed, enhancements to tlie woodland habitat to extend the ecology, and provision of an educational facility and volunteers hub.
In late 2023, representatives from Muse, McLaren Construction and Stace LLP took part in a day of impactful volunteering, supporting the conservation volunteers in clearing and maintenance of the site.
Thanks to the ongoing work from the Conservation Volunteers, it has now been developed as a haven of calm for birds, trees, flowers and members of the public. The result is a peaceful getaway of woodland, cran1med with hawtl10rn, elder, buddleia, wild geraniums, purple flowering comfrey, white daisies and pink dog roses.
The Paddock and other green infrastructure across Haringey are helping to reduce tl1e impact of climate change on the lives of residents and help Haringey Council reach its ambitious 2041 net zero targets. Vegetation has been shown to reduce the effects of raised urban temperatures through evaporative cooling, shading surfaces and allowing natural drainage.
Nearby trees also contribute to the capture and storage of CO2 and improvement of air quality. As well as vegetation, the presence of open bodies of water, such as ponds and the Lee Navigation, can assist with the cooling of sunouniling areas and in reducing daytime temperatures.
It isn't just the environment that benefits; people do too.
According to Public Health England, there is evidence regarding the relationship between exposure to, use of and perceptions of green space and several positive mental and physical health outcomes. These include reduction in psychological stress, fatigue, an.xiety and depression, promotion of better subjective wellbeing, and various improved physical health factors.
Supporting community spaces
Beyond the green space that is being enhanced at the Paddock, Muse has engaged with other key community locations in Tottenham Hale including the Engine Room. Opened in 2017, the Engine Room serves an ever-e}..-panilingmulticultural community
Hale Wh,u-fBri<lgeprovides a vital link
with a church, community centre, cafe and nursery. At the time of construction, St Francis was the first purpose-built church in London in 40 years and it has gone on to develop an active schedule of worship and community activity that sees over 500 people use the space each week.
At Christmas, Muse donated three bags of Christmas presents to the Engine Room, As well as vegetation, the presence of open bodies of water, such as ponds and the Lee Navigation, can assist with the cooling of surrounding areas and in reducing daytime temperatures
which were gifted to local children in TottenJ1am Hale Village, and supported its annual Christmas Party. The project tean1 at Muse has remained active within the local community throughout construction, with them sponsoring and set to take part in the TottenJ1am 10km run in June 2024.
To encourage art and active living in the area, Muse is set to expand the North London Hospice and Wild in Art's Big Fun Art Adventure, which will bring an exciting and free art sculpture trail to north London for families to enjoy.
More than 30 giant owl sculptures, alongside a parliament of 30 smaller owlets designed by local schools and community groups, will hide in plain sight on the streets and in the parks this summer, set to arrive in August for eight weeks. Muse is sponsoring its own owl, which will be homed adjacent to the Paddock Bridge. The project team hopes it will encourage footfall from Tottenham
Hale and beyond to the Paddock and across the Hale Wha1fBridge, showcasing the improvements of the area and its biodiversity. The owl will be later auctioned to raise money for the North London Hospice.
Building bridges
Hale Wharf exemplifies how thoughtful infrastructure can bridge the gap between urban progress, preservation of natural landscapes and improving the day-to-day lives of local people, to ultimately create a more holistic and inviting place to live.
Find out more museplaces.com/our-places/ hale-wharf-tottenham
The
across the Lee Navigation for residents of the new Hale Wharf waterside housing dewlopment
'Third
spaces' like markets provide an important social and entrepreneurial value to~ the neighbourhood
The strategic renovation of Nag's Head Ma1~ketuses increITiental change to bring: existing and future traders together, \Vrites 1
1 'With photos by
"Ifs a social space that is really endangered in London and I think markets are in need of protecting"'
Heaped plates of Columbian stews, cheap phone cases, £1 vegetable bowls and small nail salons; the Nag's Head is a thriving covered market in Seven Sisters, north London, that has been serving its local community for over 30 years. Tasked with retaining the e>.istingcharacter of the market while delivering much-needed strategic interventions, architecture practice Office S&M has delivered a celebratory renovation that looks to secure the Nag's Head's continued existence in a rapidly changing area.
The studio was originally commissioned by Finsbury Park in 2016 to support existing traders with visual merchandising, but its relationship with the market developed outside of the standard architect/client brief.
"The market was a really key location in the area;' says practice co-founder Hugh McEwen. "But it wasn't doing things as well as it could for either the traders or the local community. The council knew that they needed some help but didn't quite know what or quite know how."
Conversations with e>.istingtraders were the starting point to identify current challenges, after which Office S&M used a strategy-led approach to develop the project over six years. Working in an incremental manner, it sought planning permission for different pieces of work that could tactically transform the market space.
The most significant of these architectural moves is a new 600 sq m mezzanine level called The Upper Place. This offers seventeen new units for traders, alongside thirteen kitchens and four retail spaces, creating increased capacity for both current and future eateries. Long canteen-style tables form the focal point of the space, allowing visitors to sit and eat together.
lleYelling in the everyday is captured throughout the renovation \\'here ' long-tern1infrastructure i1nprove1nentshave been prioritised o,·er designing for individual stalls to avoid the usual pitfalls of '"zhuzhingup" a local co nun unity asset ,vithout sustainable strategic thinking
Revelling in the everyday is captured throughout the renovation, where long-term infrastructure improvements have been prioritised over designing for individual stalls or traders to avoid the usual pitfalls of"zhuzhing up" a local community asset without sustainable strategic thinking.
Small but impactful interventions includ.e improved entrances, circulation and signage. The Hertslet Road entrance, once the "back door" where bins were stored, has been transformed into a new entrance. Large '>vindowsin the building's gable end allow visitors to see down into the rest of the stalls. Celebrating this new entrance, the new signage boldly announces the Nag's Head Market in lights, adding a touch of glamour as dusk falls.
"The first photo we have is literally the bin truck outside of the back gate doing a pick-up;' says McEwen. "Turning that into a new front was really important. But it's also all those small things. It's putting in new lights, and a new drop ceiling, the new flooring and all those little things that just help the day to day. They're not particularly glamorous but they're essential:'
A key challenge for the project was addressing the range of differing needs on site. Aside from the obvious differences between an eatery, fishmonger and barbers, the market is also home to different business models, with transient day traders operating once or twice a week, while longer-term and more established businesses have permanent trading units.
The dynamic nature of the market can be traced to its history as an outdoor car-boot market, becoming an enclosed site in the early 1990s in response to the neighbouring: Morrisons supermarket development. Although the car-boot market now runs across the road, the day market in the central ground floor space is fundamental to the
character of the Nag's Head. Accommodating flexibility for transient traders was recognised as an important feature to preserve the balance of transitory and permanent.
"The Nag's Head has always had that transitory nature;' McEwen explains. 'Turning it entirely into a food market was never the intention. In one of the planning applications, the exact percentage of food and retail within the market is stated, so it's about preserving that balance, and we've solidified that through the planning process:'
The open-plan ground-floor space dedicated to the day market traders has been supported by the new signage and improved circulation to increase footfall, encouraging a clearer relationship between longstanding establishments such as the fishmongers on Holloway Road with smaller units to the rear. Fle:,,.;bilityhas also been incorporated in the new kitchen and eate1ies in The Upper Place, where the shopfronts and kitchen units feature removable stud walls to create larger combined spaces, or break the units down into smaller units for future traders.
"The site is preserved through the Islington local plan," says McEwen, "so we know that there's always going to be a market in that location as long as it keeps being protected by the council and recognised for the impact that it has.
"We've worked with a few different markets around London and I think they're so important because they can do multiple things at the same time. Markets have the ability to be perfec,tly tailored for the areas in which they exist. And I think that's really powerful because it allows them to sell things that people need, but they also provide that community support in an area because they're made by their people. They're not just transactional; it's a social space that is really endangered in London and I think markets are in need of protecting."
With rising land values, protecting so called "third spaces" like markets, which provide an important social and entrepreneurial value to the neighbourhood, is an increasingly challenging task. Nag's Head Market is notable for its lack of
Ake) challenge for the projed was addressing the differing needs on site
By day and by night: the illuminated signage extends market hours
specialism; it acts like a condensed high street with a wonderful jumble of balloons, bags, produce and takeaways all rubbing up against one another.
There is something to be learnt from Office S&M's slow, piecemeal approach to renovation that has ensured the continuity of the Nag's Head original character and existing h·aders. Recognising markets as continually changing, the physical architectural interventions have clearly had to reconcile with designing for flexibility but the strategic approach offers a valuable insight into a sustainable renovation for an existing community of market traders.
"For renovation and retrofit projects, you don't just get one bite of the cherry; it's a process;' says McEwen. "Things will have to keep changing and keep being altered to and added to over time." Nag's Head Market is currently undergoing its next phase of renovation, working on improving the public toilets on the ground floor.
"It's an endless work in progress that's you're just helping on part of its way,"says McEwen. "In 50 or 100 years, I hope the Nag's Head Market is totally as it is, but also completely different."
Nyirna Murry is a landscape designe1; architecturalfilrnrnaker and design writer @PATCH Collective
"l\tlarketshave the ability to be perfectly tailored fi>r the areas in ,vhich they exist. It allo\\'Sthe1nto sell things people need, but they also provide that conununity support in an area because they're n1ade by their people. They're notjusttransactional; it's a social space that is really endangered in l,ondon''
Nag's Head Market is notable for its lack of specialism; it acts like a condensed high street
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Whittam Cox Architects
Sidcup Storyteller:
Retelling the tale of
UK public libraries
At tl1e end of a decacie that has seen 800 lilbrary closures, the openintg of a new one shows they can not only survive but also revive the high stret:~t,writes ( I l ( I
Photos by 4 1 •
The building's civic intention is created by its almost brutal monolithic presence, albeit in hriick and pink concrete
The Sidcup Storyteller library is a rarity as one of a handful of new public libraries. Completed in late 2023, the new development by the London Borough of Bexley, a Conservative-run council, features a community space, a cinema run by the Really Local Group, nine flats for private sale and a public library, delivering civic space in mixeduse mode.
The library is designed by DRDH Architects, which won the proje<-1: competition in 2018. The majority of the practice's work has been delivered outside of the UK, including a 6,300m 2 library built in Bod0, Norway, completed in 2014. A library and cinema may seem an unlikely choice for a building to revitalise the high street. Then again, the whole project seems a remarkable leap of faith for Sidcup.
A town that expanded between the world wars, Sidcup was an aspirational place to live, earmarked for post-war suburban bliss and served by a lively town centre and bustling high street. It became part of Greater London in the mid-1960s. In recent years, however, its high street, like many others, has been suffering from a lack of footfall.
The former library building, a modern concrete complex described as "hideous" by Conservative councillor Howard Jackson at a planning meeting, was deemed underused.
In an ambitious move, the council purchased a former Blockbusters on a corner of the high street, sold off the existing library site to a housing developer and launched a competition for a new building.
As far as metrics go, Sidcup Storyteller has been a reassuring success. Library memberships have increased by 100 per cent compared with its predecessor, dispelling the myth of a lack of demand for the library as a civic institution. Beyond the red line of the site, annual high street footfall has increased. from 90,000 in 2020 (pre-lockdown) to 160,000.
Since the birth of complex cities, libraries have played a part in the urban grain, acting as a tool in defining the identity of place, while their founding mission speaks to a democratisation of knowledge and the emancipation of the self. It is one of the oldest building types, yet our current relationship with libraries is a somewhat tragic story of unrequited love. Having weathered over 800 library closures across the UK in the past 10 years, there is a pressing question of what role they might play in contemporary cities.
What's changed is how people use libraries. As a piece of social infrastructure, they have a role in providing equitable and accessible space that isn't found elsewhere. Given the cost-of-living crisis, the need for warm spaces for those in fuel poverty and the fact that 6 per cent of people in the UK are experiencing chronic loneliness, it is now more relevant than ever that people are comfortable socialising and lingering in the public realm when they're unwilling or unable to spend money.
On a normal day, Sidcup Storyteller hosts reading groups for young people and social groups for parents, organised by members of the community and taking place in the cafe, mezzanine or library spaces. Meanwhile, cinema operator The Really Local Group (as the name would suggest) gears its operation to tend to local demand. On a Wednesday morning, the "silver screen social" invites
over-60s to view a film followed by tea and biscuits. With new trends such as "booktok"which sees young people posting short videos about books on TikTok - teenagers and gen Z are expressing a new-found appreciation for libraries. Secondary school students casually wander into the cafe/box office on their lunch break. Reviews of the cinema mostly gush ,vith enthusiasm at finding this independent gem in the neighbourhood.
Sidcup local Carl, who manages the building's cafe, says of the library: "It's important because it serves as a meeting place, especially for people who are probably quite lonely. It gives people a reason to get out". He adds that he refers to those who frequent the cafe and cinema as ''patrons rather than customers because they're the bedrock. Over time, you start to get to know them."
Of the building as a whole, he adds: "It's quite simple, it's invigorated the high street and it's become a central hub for the community."
Creating a building with presence was a key part of the brief for the site, which sits at a crossroad on the high street. DRDH Architects director David Howarth says: "We began by asking how you give the high street an image. We were interested in a building that was ostensibly public; that had a civic character."
The building's civic intention is created by its almost brutal monolithic presence, albeit in brick and pink concrete. But its function is also spelt out on the building in the words "Library & Cinema".
"We were keen to have the primary signage as a part oftl1e building;' says DRDH director Daniel Ros bottom, recalling the Victorian era of swimming baths and schools, "where the building would state what it was." The facade also references the art-deco l1-1venthe cost-of-h\'Ing crisis, the need fin-,varrn spaces f<)rthose in fuel poYertyand the fact that 6 per cent of people in the t:K are experiencing chronic loneliness, it is no,v n1orcrelevant than ever that people arc con1fi.utable socialising and lingering in the public rcahn ,vhen they're un,villing or unable to spend 1noncy
Stairs leading to the three-screen cinema
Librarians' desk
The building's function is clearly stated on its facade making a public declaration of its civic purpose and intent
View of the high street from the cafe
signage of the Sidcup cinema demolished in 2003. Rosbottom says that integrating the sign age is a statement of intent to the public that this will indeed be a cinema and library for the foreseeable future, or at the very least, serve as proof of its laudable intent even if its use does change.
It's a departure from the early 2000s trend of rebranding libraries in commercialstyle buildings, such as the Idea Store in Tower Hamlets, or nesting them within other council functions as in Corby Cube or Pancras Square Library in King's Cross. Combining a library with other functions is not new but the results are not always successful.
Treading carefully, the building lacks the hyperbole of a commerce-centric development but also lacks the familiar sterility of public-sector architecture, instead existing somewhere between these two islands.
The configuration of civic amenities at the Storyteller is a promising way of cementing a public programme in the future. It shows that, handled delicately, it's possible to deliver
a high level of community benefit while using architecture to reconcile the interest of other stakeholders in a way that feels civic in its entirety, even if it technically isn't.
Given the nanow and sloping nature of the site, the building rises from below pavement level giving the impression of emerging from the ground. A semicylindrical curved form, housing the stairwell, sits aside from the main bulk of the building. Generous windows on the ground floor balance the composition and create a sense of permeability on the high street.
As for the interior, Rosbottom e>..1Jlains they were keen to cultivate the idea of a public living room, a place where people felt comfortable to sit and linger and ultimately claim ownership. Taking inspiration from William Morris's nearby Red House, the Storyteller cultivates a series of scales and levels of intimacy. The layout follows some of the rules of a domestic house, albeit more open and loose. The use of a public cafe as an entrance means the public does not meet a custodian until further into the building, once they progress upstairs to the box office or into the library.
Howarth explains: "We were trying to use the length of the building to create a series ofrooms, which also made a transition from a very public high street-facing cafe through to a sort of slightly more insular room, which began to look at this kind of greenery and sort of slightly more residential character."
Opting for a certain architectural honesty, exposed concrete beams and columns punctuate movement from one space to the next. What's clear is that the space does not prioritise commercial enterprise as sometimes happens when commercial interests intersect with civic. Instead, there is a democratisation of needs which
allows subtle, almost gentle, distinctions. Transition spaces between programmes are generous but intimate \vith carpet and timber panelling contrasting with more expansive spaces such as the double-height library and cafe. Through an open nonprescriptive movement, tl,e architecture encourages a cordial but also communal relationship between potentially disparate users.
Moving upwards, a mezzanine floor provides seating commonly used for meetups and reading groups, and overlooks the activity of the high street and the cafe below. Towards the top of the building, a large circular skylight rewards ascent. Contained on the upper level are three cinema screens alongside a flexible community space and circulation space graced with large windows providing views down to the high street and beyond. The civic building shapeshifts successfu1lyinto private flats to the rear of the building, which have balconies and views on to a mature holm oak tree, carefully saved during construction.
The project had a budget of £6 million, the ambition being that the library's total build cost would be offset by tl,e private sale of the flats at the rear of the building - a goal not quite met. Nevertheless, the council's entrepreneurial approach shows how local authorities might achieve a \vin for the local economy, community and high street. It's a hopeful message at a time when other councils are shutting down services to make up for gaps in funding.
ks hard as one might try, it is hard to unman}' the provision of civic infrastructure from the political climate and its volatile nature. As civic infrastructure evolves with cities, are we asking too much of local authorities to be able to
Children's sect10n within library
Section and selected floor plans with libral) limctlon in yellow, cafe and ancillary spaces in pink, cinema in red and residential spaces in green
The library is partially helow street level and occupies most of the ground floor of the sloping site
The flats have halconies ahove the lihrar.; and an entrance to the rear of the site on a residential street
Views of the mature tree. saved during construction, from the kitchen of one of the flats to the rear of the building
"If you speak to the t·ouncil, they ·wouldsay that con1pared to five or six years ago when they had enough autono1ny in their budgets to do this, they ·wouldstruggle to fund this no\\'. Stor) teller can1e fro1n the bravery of the local authority\\ 1ho sa\\' an opportunity and really pushed it of their 0\\ 1 n accord"
fund institutions such as libraries with any degree of perpetuity? 'Tfyou speak to the council," Howarth says, "They would say that compared to five or six years ago when they had enough autonomy in their budgets to d,o this, they would struggle to fund this now. The tmth is that [Storyteller] came from the bravery of the local authority who saw an opportunity and really pushed it of their own accord:'
"What's sad;' adds Rosbottom, "is that it would be difficult for this kind of project to be repeated elsewhere. It's still not a model. Let's hope in the future that changes again."
The case of Sidcup Storyteller is redolent of so many local authorities in the UK seeking to revitalise the high street, support traders and fund community services.
Like few other building types, libraries encourage a certain set of behaviours; woven into them is a common understanding that they are communal spaces with unspoken rules, such as taking care of the contents so as not to ruin it for others and keeping noise to a minimum. In essence, the library embodies the basic ideas of sharing.
These are virtues that are not quite so pertinent elsewhere in the landscape of high streets and town centres, but are the building blocks of vibrant communities and social cohesion. Sidcup Storyteller goes further in this vein in finding a comfortable resolution between civic, private and commercial, even to the point of bolstering each other. In doing so, it's a project that satisfies a range of intersecting interests yet remains staunchly and unapologetically civic.
TeshomeDouglas-Campbell i<;aLondonbased architectural designer, alumnus of the New Architecture Writers (NAW) programme and founding member of PATCH Collective
A large circular skylight sits at the top of the stairwell Part
Since Si<lcup Storyteller opened, annual high-street footfall has increased from 90,000 to 160,000
"This feels like a restorative take on social housing - a ne\V
AinsterdaITI School"
The Netherlands is facing a housing crisis. Spaarndainerhart in Amsterdam is part of a lllove by the city to reverse it. Words and photographs by I
The courtyard in the centre of the Spaarnclamerhart development becomes a social space where children play
The Netherlands has long been a country that UK architects, developers and policymakers look to for good examples of housing design. In the late 1990s, architects were eyeing up developments like MVRDV's WoZoCo and the work going on to develop Amsterdam's eastern docks around Java, Borneo and KNSM Islands. The West 8-designed masterplan of Borneo Sporenburg, completed in 2000, gave way to one of the most lauded regeneration schemes of recent years with more than 2,500 new homes created at a density ofl00 dwellings per hectare, involving architects such as MVRDV, Miralles Tagliabue (EMBT), and Herman Hertzberger. But the rosy picture we see when looking at these past developments is not the reality of today.
When we think of the housing crisis, we may think of London. But the Netherlands is also in the grip of such a crisis, fuelled by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, high interest rates, land shortages and difficulties in obtaining building materials and permits. Developers say that it is regulation - from energy efficiency targets to nitrogen pollution limits - that is blocking construction.
Last year when citizens went to the polls in their provincial elections, housing was a key topic. Protesters marched through the streets of Amsterdam demanding action on vacant homes and rising rents. The situation in the Dutch capital has become dire. The number of homeless people has doubled, a quarter of renters struggle to pay their bills, and a shortage of about 15,000 homes for vulnerable groups is predicted by 2030. From 2015 to 2021, average household disposable income increased by 25 per cent, while house prices soared by 63 per cent. Last year the shortage of homes reached nearly 400,000.
The Netherlands is well known for its sizeable social housing sector, managed by around 300 housing associations. These were cut loose from the state in the nineties and
Site plan of the Spaarndammerhart development
Curved brickwork protrudes out to the strePt giving a nod to the Amsterdam school style
designated as not-for-profit organisations. They received no direct subsidies but could access state-backed loans. In 2011, with most of Europe recovering from a financial crisis, pressure from Dutch politicians, the public and many housing associations led to re-regulation in social housing. This was confirmed in the 2015 Housing Act. Cody Hochstenbach, an academic at the University of Amsterdam's Centre for Urban Studies, believes this should be "viewed as part of a longer project ofneo-liberalisation in Dutch government."
He explains: '"The ownership by private entities (housing associations) and the relatively broad access to social rental housing have arguably led to a strong institutional embeddedness of, and social support for, social housing in the Netherlands, and have arguably been obstacles to structural reforms. Yet a gradual demise of this social housing tradition is under way. The 2015 Housing Act codified a set of new rules, introduced after the crises, with regard to housing association investments and access to social housing."
It was also during the nineties that state funds for large-scale renewal projects were made available as part of selective urban policies that targeted deprived neighbourhoods. Priority in urban policy shifted from improving housing conditions to addressing changing social conditions. Tenure evolved to alter the social mix. Typically,the social housing stock diminished in favour of owner-occupied housing to accommodate higher-income groups in disadvantaged areas. This was all part of a
concerted effort to break a perceived spiral of decline.
Hochstenbach continues: "In the last 30 years, there has been a consistent set of politics based on the ideology of home ownership, encouraging us all to buy as strategic, calculating mini-capitalists. The Netherlands had a rich tradition of social housing; it was an international example of affordable housing managed by housing corporations. But, especially in the last decade, politicians have decimated housing corporations."
Last year, in order to tackle these growing issues, the Amsterdam municipality pledged to build more homes - 52,500 houses by the end of2025 -including social housing, which will account for around 2,500 of these new homes.
Its new initiative - The Amsterdam Approach to Public Housing (AAV)- is a joint initiative by the city's municipal government, housing corporations and the citizens of Amsterdam. Whether its objective is possible remains to be seen. Only once in the last 24 years have more than 7,500 homes been built in Amsterdam in a single year.
Alongside this ambition have come a number of new policies. The circular economy became one of the foundations of the Arnsterdanl's housing policy in 2020, making it the first city to commit to building a circular economy. It aims to halve use of new raw materials by 2030 and be fully circular by 2050. Construction and the built environment form a major strand of this radical new policy. Based on Kate Raworth's principles of"doughnut economics':
In the last 30 years, there has been an ideology of hon1e o\\rnership, encouraging us all to buy as strategic, calculating n1ini-capitalists. The Netherlands had a rich tradition of socia] housing; it \\'as an international cxa1nplc of affordable housing 1nanagcd by housing corporations. Jut, especially in the last decade, politicians 1avedcci1nated housing corporations"
Archways adorned with brick words b) the artist Martjin Sandberg link the internal courtyard to the street
principles of"doughnut economics", it recognises the need to find a balance between the basic needs of the citizen and the ecological limit~ of the planet. Every policy decision made must now consider what the impact would be for humanity and the planet in general. In the case of building housing, it is about placing its construction in the wider contell."tof a climate emergency and considering its impact not just now but also to future generations.
We are just seeing the start of some of these projects coming through but the main move has been to make the reuse of building materials standard practice, providing a city-wide digital inventory of available materials for architects and others working in the built environment to consult In 2022 the city's work in developing its policy around the circular economy made it a finalist in the Earthshot Prize, a global environmental award.
A recent project that has been heralded as an example of Amsterdam housing helping to address these issues is the Spaamdammerhart - a collaborative design betv,een the architectural offices of Korth Tielens Architecten and Marcel Lok_Architect, artist Martjin Sandberg and landscape architect DS Landschapsarchitecten. The result of a competition run by the local municipality,
The Spaarndammerhart development restores the old street pattern which had been broken in the 1970s
the 80-home development is a mix of apartments, duplexes, courtyard dwellings, and t0\'111houses arranged around a central courtyard space.
Half of the development is free market housing, which has been used to help fund the 30 per cent of the development that is social housing and 20 per cent middle rent. Middle rent is a typology quite specific: to Amsterdam's new housing policy but compares to "affordable housing" in the UK. It is aimed at tackling the worsening positiom of middle-income households - a focal point in Dutch political debates around housing. Middle rent has a monthly cap of between €700 and €1,000.
The new development is surrounded by iconic housing complexes built in the last century: Herman Walenkamp's Zaanhof, Karel de Bazel's Zaandammerplein, and Michel de Klerk's Het Schip. Spaarndammerhart acts as an infill project, repairing the urban grain and acting as a modern-day reference to these social housing developments from the historic Amsterdam School.
The homes are accessed through two arched gateways which are accentuated by curved balconies that bulge out from the brickwork above. This anchors the development within the neighbourhood of typically brick Amsterdam School architecture. The evolution of the style is also evoked through Sandjberg's brick text in these arched gateways which reads: ''Anno 1917",''Anno 2020" and the future of"Anno 3025". Also depicted in the brick floor of the courtyard is the tell."t:"The old way to the new times/The new way to the old times.' There is an air of looking back to look forward and vice versa.
The courtyard becomes a key space for conviviality - a large open-air room at the heart of the development. As you enter, the green glazed bricks sparkle, adding almost a feeling of-fun. The Tellytubby-like mound of grass in the middle obscures the houses to the back from complete view of the street
through the brick archways. Children play on scooters and bikes, doing laps around this mound. The front doors of the houses face on to this courtyard and there is an interstitial space between it and their front doorstep. There are similar motifs around the idea of the stoop that can be found in Peter Barber's architecture in the UK.
The space is publicly accessible - I wander in to take photographs and, as a grandmother watches, her grandchildren play and another couple chat nearby. It is clear that this space is the domain of the residents and I am a visitor here, being carefully watched.
"There is a real sense of community within the project; says architect Marcel Lok. "We have a lot of contact with the residents who have moved in, and they all say this. They are very happy. There is a real connection with the street."
The area itself had developed from the first Housing Act of 1901, when the Netherlands national government set initial rules for housing and urban planning which would begin to determine the area as we see it today. At the time, state subsidies for social housing were only handed out to "eligible institutions", which meant that much of the housing built around that time
Tl1e circular econo1ny hecan1e one of the foundations of the A111stcrda1n'shousing policy in 2020. It ain1s to see hal\'e use of ne\\' ra,v 1naterials by 20:30 and he fully circular by 2050. Constru<'tion and the built e1n·ironn1entfonn a Ill<\jorstrand of this radical IlC\\r policy
Typography !,rivesa defined identity to the Spaamdammerhart development
Elevations and sections through the Spaarndammerhart development
Michel de Klerk's Het Schip - an icon of the Amsterdam School - sits just around the corner from Spaarndammerhart
The green glazed bricks of the Spaarndammerhart's courtyard
"Thereis a real sense of conununity\\ 1 itl1in the Spaa1·ndan1n1erha1t prqject,"says architect
Marcel
Lok.
"Wehave a lot of contact \\ 1 ith the residents who have 111oved in, and they all say this. The) are very happy. There is a real connection ,vith the street"
or founded by industry. This was further enforced by the so-called Pacification of 1917. At this point the pillars of Dutch societyCatholic, Protestant, Liberal and Socialist - saw the importance of social housing as a social glue. It was in the Spaandammerburt neighbourhood that these ideologies could be proven and there was a ~trong preference for building courtyard housing schemes by the area's Protestant and social-democratic housing associations but also by the railway company, which was building housing for its workers in the area.
In the 1970s the area underwent urban renewal. A school was built on the site of the Spaarndammerhart, which cut through t\.YO blocks and closed off the street, radically changing the neighbourhood. The demolition of the school in order to build this housing project has provided the chance to rebuild along the street line and repair the urban grain.
As architectural historian Hans Iberlings writes: "Urban renewal was usually meant to be a wind of change; city repair offers a more restrained and less disruptive form of
transformation. Urban renewal is a makeover of the city; city repair rebuilds."
He adds: "Spaarndammerhart is an example of such 'rebuilding'. The complex has erased the scar that the schools had left - undoubtably with the best intentions - by cutting up the pattern of blocks and streets. Spaarndammerhart is a return to what street and block used to be, albeit not in the same form that they once had:'
Looking at the housing in this area reveals the success of Amsterdam's various housing schemes throughout history. The project is about repairing the city, but also about repairing the city population's view of housing in Amsterdam in a crisis. There are the obvious signs of gentrificationa co-working space, nice places to buy a coffee - but there is also a mi.-..:here. Spaarndamerhart, ,vith its curvy brick walls, feels interwoven into the neighbourhood and at home here. This feels like the beginnings of a restorative take on Dutch housing - a new Amsterdam School that prioritises community, mb.:ed tenure and climate mitigation.
Laura Mark i,s an architecture critic, curator and filmmaker and co-lead of the first year undergraduate course at Sheffield School qf Architecture
The regeneration of Amsterdam's Eastern clocks at Borneo Sporenburg wa~ an inspiration for many architects and developers in the early :woos
The streets of Borneo Sporenburg
A landscaped mound in the centre of the courtyard shields the homes from view from the street
Placetest:Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Anthropo og1st i
tt speaks to locals with photography by
A family picnic near the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on an earl) spring day in London in April 2024
ega-events have "monumental ephemerality", according to archaeologist Rebecca Graf Recent Olympic and Paralympic Games have, however, tried to move beyond the momentary to lasting legacy. Indeed, the importance oflegacy is written into the Olympic Charter. What that legacy means has varied through time but, since the 1960s Rome Olympics, event-led regeneration has been a central driving force for many such mega-events.
The overall plan for the London 2012 Olympic Park was to redevelop a large area of the Lower Lea Valley and make the area into "the new heart of east London", adopting spatial principles to create thriving neighbomhoods, connected to each other and stitched into pre-existing communities, mixing living, industry and leisure, and centred around the waterways in the valley. The aim was not only to bring much-needed investment to the four deprived London boroughs - Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest - that the Olympic site straddled, but to completely transform the area as well. As such, the London Olympic bid positioned regeneration as its driving motivation, declaring that the Games would deliver prosperity to the East End and London as a whole.
The vision, delivered by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) was to create a "total social legacy" and the park is broadly successful. At over 225 hectares, the Olympic area is vast, including green spaces, waterways, housing, leisure facilities and infrastructure projects. The East Village and Chobham Manor are residential areas, housing families and young professionals working for companies such as Google and Meta. The East Bank is home to arts and cultural institutions including V&A East, Sadler's Wells East and BBC Music studios. When workplaces started reopening after the Covid-19 lockdowns, the Care Quality Commission moved its offices to Stratford from its previous location in Old Street. HMRC and the Human Tissue Authority have offices there. Here East houses creative, technological and business incubators as well as long established firn1s. Universities, too, are moving in. Loughborough has a London campus within the Olympic Park, and there are new buildings for University College London's UCL East campus and the UAL London College of Fashion.
The area retains some industry. It was once home to 280 businesses employing 5,000 people in various trades but, according to research by Professor Julia Davis, these were relocated before the Games, and many closed down. The site still has concrete and
aggregate plants, owned and run by Network Rail. Although it is seeking planning to develop leisure and business facilities, it aims to keep the railhead running too. Workspaces, maker spaces and start-up incubators have been added to the park.
Over 12,000 homes have been built with the stated aim of 30 per cent being affordable housing. Yet social housing rep01tedly makes up less than 10 per cent of the total homes - approximately 1,000 units have been delivered. These are small numbers given the early promise that 30,000 to 40,000 new homes would be built, much ofit affordable and for key workers. And especially given that the Clays Lane estate, which had 450 lowcost tenancies, was emptied and demolished to make way for Olympic development. According to The Guardian, research by Dr Penny Bernstock reveals that the net gain is just 110 genuinely affordable homes. Meanwhile, in the four boroughs there are nearly 75,000 households on the waiting list for council homes. Private rental and housing prices have increased and the "affordable" rental housing in the East Village has a minimum income threshold of £48,000 for a one-bed flat while shared ownership homes require an annual income ofat least£60,000.
In response, an LLDC spokesperson says: "Our record on housing delivery compares well to any other regeneration scheme in the capital and beyond. All our housing is in line with national and regional policies for affordable housing provision, but like the rest of London there are real cl1allengers about truly affordable social rent homes; Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is no different. This project is about not only delivering great quality housing, of which there is much
more to come, but creating a new part of the city that includes significant infrastructure, economic growth and health and wellbeing."
The LLDC has written that some 33,000 new homes will be built in the area by 2036, almost 35 per cent of them affordable. "That's over 11,000 new affordable homes in a range of tenures:'
Developing the area
There was some development in the area prior to the Olympic bid, but the pace and scale accelerated for the Games. A bevy of masterplans have directed the development, including one for the Games, an interim one from 2012-2014 overseeing the initial transformation from mega-event to public use, and subsequent masterplans for development since then. To oversee the works, the LLDC was set up in 2012 as a London mayoral development corporation under the 2011 Localism Act (which aimed to devolve decision-making to local authorities) and was given town-planning powers. A local plan covers work done between 2020 and 2036. In almost all cases, planning submissions go to the LLDC rather than the borough. However, the LLDC planning policy and decisions team is expected to cease this function as planning authority from midnight on 30 November 2024 and return planning powers to the boroughs. Development is also subject to the convergence plans for growth set out before the Games by those four boroughs along with Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham, related to reducing wealth gaps, improving health and wellbeing, and creating "successful" neighbourhoods. Development within the area, therefore, is a multilayered and complex process that must address multiple objectives.
Integral to the design and its connection to neighbouring areas are the green spaces, comprising a mix of gardens, meadows and wetlands. The development centres
Playground in sight of the ArcelorMittal Orbit
Local residents comment on feeling safe in the park and how enjoyable it is
Cherry blossoms bloom in April 2024: The landscape design and planting of the park was a mammoth undertaking that many people appreciate
The park is set apart: Pedestrian link bridge to Stratford town centre over the train tracks from Westfield and the Olympic Park
View from Eastcross Bridge of the planting in the north of the park either side of the River Lea, near the Velodrome
The legac) of the Games means that the park has step-free and inclusive access
on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - the first major new park created in London in over a century - with the green areas and waterways always positioned as central to the area's layout and design. Malung the area a "water city" was one of the five key spatial concepts of the initial design. As part of this, a 2.5km linear park was created above an abandoned embankment of one of London's major sewers. The River Lea and its tributaries in the area were decontaminated and more than 200 hectares ofland acquired. The park, led by the late landscape architect John Hopkins with Dr Phil Askew, was a mammoth undertal<ing. It involved moving 250 trees from where they were positioned for the Games, and planting 4,300 semi-mature trees, 127,000 shrubs, 1 million herbaceous plants, over 1 million bulbs and a 250,000m 2 "species rich" meadow. The landscape masterplan was led by LDA Design and includes designs by Piet Oudolf, Nigel Dunnett, James Hitchmough, Sarah Price, LUC, Erect Architecture, VOGT Zurich, KLA and James Corner Field Operations, and others.
The result is an area of urban development with a mi_xoflandscapes. While some areas are highly manicured, others have been created to attract wildlife or as slightly rugged green areas, many a little messy, which feel lived in and used. Research
by Dr Bridget Snaith in 2015 found that the semi-wild aesthetic is one preferred by white, university-educated British people and as such, has the potential to exclude many of the communities living in the areas surrounding the park. However, the people I spoke to, who crossed ethnicities and ages and comprised renters and home-owners, all expressed their appreciation of the green spaces.
The green areas and waterways connect the park to its surrounds and beyond. One day, when the weather allowed, I walked from Queen Elizabeth Park through Hackney Marshes all the way up to Tottenham Hale, a walk of just over one and a half hours, only having to leave the parks and wetlands for the last few minutes. Another day, I walked west through Victoria Park and into Mile End, again mostly through parks and green areas. To be able to walk for so long with little contact to roads and traffic, all the while in London, felt otherworldly, as did the variety of environments encountered along the way. The wetlands feel much older than tl1eir years, and the flora and fauna appear as if they have always been there.
Albina, a product designer who has lived in the area for seven years, first as a student and then returning after moving away for a year, noted that to do this required extensive expertise in eco-system construction. "It's really impressive the way they managed to get that feeling of being in the wilderness right outside the East Village;' she told me. During the Covid lockdowns, this kept her grounded: "Every day I would walk around to see the ducks - that was my circle. I just needed the ducks. And I knew every duck. I saw them growing up. I saw them building their nests. They bring you peace every time you go there and you 're at tl1e end of your patience with the world.
"You have the big city and the incredibly modern East Village, and then you have that wildness in the park. I don't know how they managed to do that but I love it:'
One aspect that contributes to this atmosphere is the limited traffic. Altl1ough there are some cars in tl1e area, and of course delivery vans and bin lorries, much of the development is linked by waterways, bridges, walking and cycle paths. Cars are kept to th,e outer edges and, with bus and train stations at either end, the result is a relatively traffic-free area, which feels clean and breatlrnble.
This island-like design has botl1 positive and negative effects. In keeping vehicles to the outer roads, tl1e area feels calm, safe and clean. It also, however, feels separate. The area is made up of several islands but is, itself, an island, separated from "old" Stratford by a bridge on one side and Hackney Wick on the other.
For Rina, who commutes to work at her organisation's offices in the park, this separation creates a dislocation from "real life'' and autl1entic neighbourhoods. She noticed this particularly in relation to food but also with the general ambience of the area.
For others, it marks a separation of peoples. The East Village population, full of digital nomads and young professionals, va1ies vastly from the urban hipsters of Hackney Wick you meet on crossing the bridge, or the families in old Stratford on the opposite side. Although the community is still developing, it is likely to retain this aspect, at least in tl1e East Village where the majority of the 2,818 homes are build-to-rent.
Build-to-rent is an e}.l)anding housing model in the UK. It sees renting as a longterm style of living, rather tlrnn an interim step between leaving your parents and buying your own place. Common in other parts of tl1e world, it is a relatively new model in the UK, started here in the Olympic Park \vith the transformation of the Atl1letes' Village into the East Village - a joint venture between Q.atari Diar and Delancey, Triathlon Homes, First Base, East Thames Group and Southern Housing Group.
In aiming to attract and retain clients who seek the luxury of this model and can afford the p1ices, the housing companies have invested heavily in tl1e area, not only architecturally but also at a community and environmental level. The majority of shops and eateries are independent and there are attempts to showcase the neighbourhood's social as well as environmental sustainability, with investment in community sports as well as the building of schools, nurseries, doctors and dentists (although, as in most areas, people feel there are not enough). The people I spoke to felt the developers were invested in the community as much as the buildings. ''They want new customers;' said one. ''They
"It'sreally
iinpressive the ,vay they 1nanagedto get that feeling of being in the "'ilderness right outside the East Village. You have the big city and the incredibly n1odernEast Village, and then you have that wildness in the park. I don't know ho,v they n1anagedto do that but I love it''
Playful places: a child peeks inside Spiegelei Junior by Jem Finer, an art installation commissioned after the Games, \\hich provides a topsy-turvy ,;ew of the park landscape upside down
want to keep bringing people in, so they keep it clean, they keep it attractive, convenient and keep developing." They also want to keep it connected. Transport and infrastructure e..xpansion were key, not only to the Games, but to regenerating the area, making it attractive to UK-based and foreign investors. With train, tube, DLR and bus connections, the transport links are excellent. Despite its name, plans to have the Eurostar stop at Stratford International never came to fruition so you can't travel directly to Paris as once envisioned. But it does offer fast connections to Kent and London St Pancras. These connections - to community, to the city, and to the wider world - were key to many people I spoke to, who voiced their appreciation of the area. When rail and tube strikes were grinding much of London to a halt, people near Stratford were fine. With so many options, there was always an available route to get home or to work. This has become a factor in why some choose to stay in the area. AB Reid, who moved down from Scotland, noted:
"It definitely makes you more mobile. For example, you take a train for a few minutes to St Pancras and tl1en you're in Paris! It's just so convenient. You can go to the coast really easily - in an hour you are in Margate."
Cosmopolitanism
East London has always been an area of superdiversity and the Olympic Park area is no different. But the park's connection to an international event is a draw for some. Those who have recently moved to the UK tell me this is an area where they have been made to feel welcome - unlike their experiences in other parts of the city.
"It's nice, if you're not from the UK, to live in an international area;' one commented. AB such, an international community is growing here and many of the people I spoke to felt they wanted to stay. Pavel, a lawyer who moved to the area two years ago ,vith his partner Elena, noted: "There's Italians serving you Italian stuff, and you can speak Italian if you want to. Or if you want to have Chinese food, traditional and authentic, you can have Chinese food served by Chinese people. This is such an intercultural area, and
Street
skaters practise their mO\·esand routines outside the UCL East campus building, designed b~ architect Stanton vVilliams
People like that the park is open at night and not gated, unlike other parks in London that are closed after dark
Routes around the park are lit at night, pro\iding an additional feeling of safety they are trying to preserve that."
The international connections go beyond the population and its Olympic legacy.
Steel company ArcelorMittal is very proud of the Orbit, which was completed in May 2012. Commissioned by then mayor of London Boris Johnson to be the Eiffel Tower of London, the red sculptural observation tower was designed by artist Anish Kapoor with engineer Cecil Balmond and the late architect Kathryn Findlay. A twisting 178m-long slide by artist Carsten Holler was added in 2016 to boost ticket sales - the tower was supposed to make money as an attraction but is a source of growing debt due to interest on a loan from steel company owner Lakshmi Mittal.
At 114.5m, the Orbit is the UK's tallest sculpture and dominates the area. In discussing its design, Kapoor stated: "I wanted the sensation of instability, something that was continually in movement
It is an object that cannot be perceived as having a singular image from any one perspective. You need to journey round the object and through it. Like a Tower of Babel, it requires real participation from the public:'
That participation comes in more forms than originally imagined. It was built from over 60 per cent reclaimed steel, and ArcelorMittal has said it includes materials from every continent where the company had operations. Mladen Jelaca, the chief executive of ArcelorMittal Prijedor, its mining operation in Bosnia, reportedly revealed in conversation that the Orbit includes iron ore from a mine in Omarska. During the Balkans wars in the 1990s, this mine was used as a concentration camp for at least 3,334 people, with hundreds found in mass graves at the site and thousands missing. When ArcelorMittal took over Omarska in 2004, mass graves were still being excavated in the area. Despite a commitment from the company in 2005 to finance and build a memorial at the mine, by the time the Olympics came around, none had been created. In 2012, survivors of the Omarska concentration camp declared that the ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Olympic Park should be claimed as ·The Omarska Memorial in Exile" to those killed at the camp. In an article for Open Democracy, Susan Schuppli writes: "Is the ArcelorMittal
Most lampposts in the park haw a unique number on them, so that visitors in need of help can alert park security to their location
The sports legacy excites Yisitors
Orbit literally a material witness to a crime?"
The Orbit is not the only international memorial in the Olympic Park. Originally planned for a site near the old City Hall by Tower Bridge until local residents objected, and in search of a home since being moved from Battersea Park, the sculpture SINCE 9/11, was installed close to the Aquatics Centre in 2015. Created by artist Miya Ando and donated to London by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the sculpture is made of steel remnants of the World Trade Center and is one of only sbc remnants of the towers sent overseas. The sculpture is considered hard to find, being located in an obscure corner of the park, between a car park and Carpenters Road in a grove of trees at the rear of the swimming pool. An inscription on a plaque headed "Why at Q.ueen Elizabeth Olympic
Park?" explains that the 2012 Games were "a powerful symbol of hope, peace and tolerance - the same values represented by SINCE 9/11. Today the park receives visitors from all over the world and is situated in the heart of London's most diverse and dynamic communities, making it the artwork's natural home." The London Remembers website, which documents all of the capital's memorials, claims some British relatives of those who died in the attacks have '·expressed dislike of the monument."
Design
The futuristic and somewhat Brutalist architecture of the East Village, as well as the eclectic mix of building styles across the development in general, prompts various associations to other places. For one Russian couple I interviewed, part of the initial attraction to the area was that it reminded them of where they used to live in Moscow - so eerily similar in fact that they believe the town architects in Moscow had been influenced and inspired by the park and surroundings after visiting the area during the 2012 Games.
The East Village reminded me of UK social housing which, while looking rather austere, was designed around family and community- tall blocks of flats looking inwards to paved areas where children could gather and play. This was noted by Jonathan, who moved to the area from Canterbury several years ago: "The open spaces are wide, so you can actually see things;' he told me. "They're connected and a little bit enclosed, so you could imagine the kids going out and [parents] thinking alright, we'll keep an eye but we kind of know where you are.
1 he open spaces are \vide so you can actually see things. They're connected and a little bit enclosed so you could in1aginc the kids going out and
thinking
alright, \ve'Il
just keep an
eye here hut \VC kind ofkno\\' \\rherc you arc. I think that's the architectural design. It has \\ 1orked brilliantly because people do feel like that's a safe environn1ent and reaily e1ljoyit"
"We used to send our son with one of his mates and he would love being in the communal area. All of his other mates would come down and they would play together. I think that's the architectural design. It has worked brilliantly because people do feel like it's a safe environment and enjoy it."
Potential readings are vast. The recent film All of Us Strangers ,vas filmed in the East Village, in tl1e buildings in front of Victory Park. In the film, the area is deserted, cold and sterile, and the two central protagonists seem to be tl1e only inhabitants of a brandnew building - all visual metaphors for tl1e struggles, loneliness and emotions of the main character, Adam. The reality is vastly different. While not yet full, the buildings are well populated and the public areas teemed with people of all ages, genders and ethnicities whether I visited at night or by day. I saw children out and about with their teachers, examining the wetlands, doing surveys on tl1e streets, or enjoying the public areas and playgrounds.
One evening, I attended a community event at UCL East. On leaving, in the dark, it was reassuring to be able to follow a lit path back to the station, where teenagers were hanging out, people were walking dogs, there were couples on dates, and others returning home or going out. Unlike many of London's green areas, the Olympic Park can still be visited at night - a particular bonus for the women and queer people I interviewed. Saira compared it favourably to Camden, where she lived before moving here. "We were afraid of walking outside when it became darker,"
A climbing wall near the London Stadium
she said. "I think it's safer here." Another interviewee agreed: "You can walk with your dog or with your baby and it's OK. That's unusual for London."
The fact that all the people I spoke v.rith commented on feeling safe is interesting, given the high levels of crime reported around Stratford station and the fact that, in recent months, phone snatching has become a problem across the park. On this, one interviewee, originally from South Africa commented: "I wouldn·t have expected it. You think you're leaving that sort of life behind and it ends up being pretty much the same." While most of the crime recorded by the Metropolitan Police for the park in the last three years is related to robbery and theft, there are also incidences of violence and sexual offences.
This has not led to a feeling of unease or insecurity. In fact, feeling safe in the area was one of the uniting themes of almost every person I spoke to. For some, safety was the driving force behind moving to the neighbourhood. Ben's family, for example, moved into social housing in the development in 2013. They had lived elsewhere in London but applied to move to this area in pa1t to help keep the children safe. Lighting at night, community connection fostered by sport, and the management of the area were mentioned as supporting feelings of safety. I felt safe too when I visited - a woman, alone, day or night.
The sporting legacy
The Olympic and Paralympic Games, of course, loom large, from the Olympic rings that stand in the Lower Lea Valley, to the names of the streets and green areas including places like Victory Park, Celebration Avenue, Medals Way and Champions Walk. Critical to this etching of Olympic memory is the continuing importance of sport to the park.
Elite sport remains significant. The Premier League football team West Ham moved into the London Stadium in 2016, while the London Lions men's basketball team made the Copper Box Arena their base in 2013, the women's team joining them in 2017. The arena has also hosted the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, the Invictus Games and more. The London Stadium, ,vith a capacity of 60,000, has played host to the World Championship Athletics games and World Para Athletics Championships (the IAAF games), a Rugby World Cup and international baseball tournaments to name but a few. It also fonctions as a concert venue. The Aquatics Centre has hosted similarly prestigious events, including Sports Relief, the FINA Diving World Series, and a Super
in the Olympic Park League Triathlon.
But it is not only elite sports that are critical. Access to the venues and sport in general has been key to drawing people to the park, ensuring the mixed use of the area, and community-based projects are run out of every venue and across the site. A commitment to keep sports affordable or free means that sport has not only attracted people to the site but created links across communities. Having access to world-class facilities is attractive: As Dennis, who moved to the area for work, commented: "To have these facilities 10 minutes away from my home; I can't move away from this luxury."
One example of the way sport creates connections is the E20 Football Foundation and its associated teams. A thriving project with adult and child programming, a coaching academy and much more, E20 developed almost accidentally in the early stages of the development. Jonathan Silman, a former national athlete, moved to the area: "I thought, yeah, that would be the perfect area for my kids to grow up, as well as to be involved in myself."Silman used to take his young children and their friends to play football at the weekends. Other parents ask,~d if their children could play. Before long he was running several games a week, at which point Get Living approached him, offering support and sponsorship. The result was the foundation, which helps connect the area's different communities and also has a foture-
focused legacy, working \vith young people in the area to train them as players and coaches. Its participants have gone on to play for the likes of Arsenal, Leyton Orient and Charlton, while several of the coaching graduates now work with West Ham.
E20 stretches across the community, bringing together people regardless of income or background. One of the players commented: '"They have something they can go to and it doesn't need to cost you. You
Lime electric hikes crowd the bridge in Hackney Wick hecause dockless e-bike parking is not pem1itted
O,er the bridge to Ilackne) Wick and the vibe changes
Designed by James Corner Field Operations and derided~ '\vack) ., and "garish" by architecture critic.-;when revealed a decade ago, the play landscapes of the southern half of the Olj111picPark around the London Stadium are popular with all ages, loved and unique
One of five new neighbourhoods in the park, Chobham Manor includes 859 homes developed in a joint venture between London & Quadrant and Taylor Wimpey with ,35 per cent classed as affordable homes. Unlike most Oats in the park, Chobham Manor houses were sold as freehold
Hackney Bridge is a temporary canalside development
offiw buildings connected together to create maker spaces, pop-up market stalls, food, bars an<levent spaces. Designed by architect Turner ·works and opened in 2020, the incubator space is on the site of future housing as part of the Ea.st Wick and Sweetwater development by Balfour Beatty an<l Places for People
Designed by O'Donnell+ Tuomey, the V&A East museum forms par1 of the East Bank project to create a new cultural hub in the park
The East Bank cultural quarter also includes Sadler's Wells East, the theatre's fourth \'enue, pictured opposite the Aquatics Centre
UAL's London College of Fashion, designed by Allies & Morrison, brings 5,000 students to a new site on the East Bank
A love of sport at all levels is evident in the park, from leisure pursuit to elite athlete
Designed by Ileneghan Peng, the two reflective mirror-clad bridges were once iniilled to create a single giant bridge to carry Olympic crowds
Designed by LUC with Erect Architecture, Tumbling Ba) playground includes wooden structures, sand and water pla) \\;th an ecology theme
Construction is ongoing and the property prices have increased dramatically
come on your bike and meet some mates for a couple of hours. Apart from this very important social thing, it's also taking care of children who cannot afford to play football." The foundation also feeds into the creation of a safer neighbourhood. As Silman told me: "The parents say they make friends. And if there's a situation that ever needs to be resolved, they come to the football academy to resolve it. Even the schools sometimes."
Other sports remain important. During the Covid lockdowns, residents took full advantage of the various facilities. The paddle courts were regularly booked out, there is a lively tennis club, and the parks and greenways provide space for walking and mnning without being on roads. This transformation from Olympics to community is an important part of making the area usable. Having grown up in Essex, I remember how exciting it was, when the park reopened, to be able to use the Aquatics Centre where we had watched Michael Phelps and Wu Minxia win medals and break records.
That West Ham is now in the London Stadium is also exciting. Steven, who lives in Essex, regularly brings his children to the games. They enjoy the venue because of its location - close to Westfield shopping centre and the park but also the Aquatics Centre. His 11-year-old daughter told me that she likes the excitement and the atmosphere while waiting for the game ("It's like a community, all waiting for the san1e thing"), but also that it is close to the park and the water ("I like looking at that," she commented). While vast crowds arrive to watch West Ham, the stadium's transport options mean getting in and out is quick and easy. The residents I spoke to appreciate this. While buzzing, it never feels out of control.
On the other side
The story of the park is not entirely sunny. A mega-event is always destructive as
well as productive. Rapid development comes at the expense of those who already lived in the area. Although presented as a "wasteland" in dire need of regeneration and renewal, thousands worked and several hundred people lived on the Olympic site, and a community of gardeners thrived at th,e Manor Gardens Allotments. While the area had been declining in wealth and prosperity in the decades before the bid - largely due t,o de-industrialisation - this '"wasteland~was still an area of industry and life. The biggest losers of the redevelopment, therefore, were those living and working in the area who were not allowed to remain.
The rise in the cost of housing is a concern. The legacy plan for the Olympics was supposed to narrow inequality, building affordable housing and increasing the health and wellbeing of those living in east London. Yet the fact that Newham was one of the worst affected boroughs for cases and death rate during the Covid pandemic, followed by Hackney and Tower Hamlets, is one reason researcher Dr Farjana Islan1 from The Urban Institute w1ites that minoritised ethnic communities in east London did not sufficiently benefit from the Games and "remain severely deprived in terms of health, housing and employment provision".
Now, people who moved into the neighbourhood dming the initial years are also being priced out of the area. One family told me the rent in their building had increased by 25 per cent in one year, making it unaffordable for some. New properties are advertised as spectacular and luxurious: Fortune magazine recently profiled a £17.5 million penthouse in Stratford as the most e>.'-pensiveproperty in east London. The newest rental development to open is Coppermaker Square - a "premium rental" complex that comes complete \.vith a private chef for hire. Victory Plaza's two towers include no affordable homes. The lack of affordable housing is disappointing considering the initial aim to provide
much-needed infrastructure, housing and regeneration to the four boroughs the park encompasses.
Among residents, there have been complaints about the maintenance charge which pays for the upkeep to the park, which does not receive funding from the boroughs. All commercial and residential occupiers on public land must pay the levy, but those on private land, including people living in the East Village, don't - a problem highlighted in a 2023 review. The Fb:ed Estate Charge costs in excess of .£1,000 per year for those living in a three-bed flat in Chobham Manor, who are also charged a service fee for tl1e development upkeep. The LLDC has said it is reviewing different approaclles to the levy.
With a high level of renters, there is a rapid turnover of the population surrounding the park, and some feelings of disconnection between those living in social housing and privately owned dwellings to those in the built-to-rent properties. There is also ongoing controversy - and a legal battle - over the fire safety oftl1e buildings and who is responsible for paying for the cladding replacement and improvements to the East Village.
Although it has always formed part of the overall masterplan, the next phase of homebuilding will convert some of the green spaces into housing, which has led to feelings that the park is being eroded.
A place that's always changing
Any urban place is one of constant cl1ange. In a mega-scale project like the Olympic Park, this is all the more the case. One evening in March, I attended a community event aiming to inform local residents and businesses of existing and upcoming developments. Representatives from the major players and providers were there: Pudding Mill, Network Rail, Coppermaker Square, to name just a few. Sitting next to them were local community organisations - the Good Growth Hub, a mobile garden, Creative Connect and many others. While there will always be sticking points, the integration of community and business seemed to be working well in general.
As Zoe Pollock, a student from tl1e University of Georgia who undertook her MA research on the Olympic Park said: "When you talk about economic regeneration, people tend to think about maximising profit. But a lot of people were speaking of an economic regeneration which sparked sustainability."
For Iona, who has lived here for coming on four years, change is a good thing: "This place is becoming more liveable for me."
Caroline Bennett is lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Sussex
Family biking past the V&.AEast
Lite in the East Village: all commercial and residential occupiers in a zone of'the park are subject to a fixed estate charge, a leV) that contributes to the development and ongoing maintenance of the park. However East Village and Glasshouse Gardens residents lie outside the zone while Chobham .Manor residents are ¼;thin it. A review of the charge in 2023 ha;; made recommendations to the London Legacy Development Corporation for levy reform. The charge is used to maintain the landscape, lights, CCTV, security and pest control services
The Pineapples 2024: Winners and shortlists
The a"Wardscelebrate places and i11itiativesthat contribute to urban life and make a positive social and environmental impact on their 11eighbourl1ood
The Pineapples awards for place had their biggest year yet, with 88 projects shortlisted for the coveted golden prize for excellence in placemaking. The winners were presented by The Developer founding editor-in-chief Christine Munay at a party on 16 May in recognition of their positive social, environmental and economic contribution to urban life.
The event was hosted at St Andrew Holborn, the iconic Wren church on the Holborn viaduct in the heart of the City of London. The Pineapples awards party is unique as a standing event with bowl food and cocktails, ideal for a celebrating and networking with the teams behind the best places.
The winners were selected after a robust three-part judging process. Shortlisting took place online, after which built works were visited by at least one judge. In the final stage, all shortlisted projects for The Pineapples were presented to the judges in sessions that were livestreamed on digital
event platform Airmeet from 27-31 March. The presentations are recorded and available to watch back.
The Pineapples celebrate places where people want to live, work and play, and are a huge part of how we interrogate, recognise and promote best practice.
New categories this year include Buildin 1~, recognising the contribution of a new piece of architecture to a wider place, and Activation: Community Space.
A wide range of projects with varying geographic scopes and project types are celebrated among the winners. Expert industry judges are instructed to take into account the social and environmental impact of each project, therefore many of the places have overcome challenges to achieve a delicate balance.
The judges also have the discretion to award more than one Pineapple in each category should two projects of equal merit emerge. This recognises that sometimes it can happen that two standout projects
enter the awards in the same year. If equally excellent, why not recognise them both?
At the event, Murray thanked the judges and entrants for helping The Developer and the Festival of Place, "define best practice and showcase what it takes to make places that thrive".
She said: "What stood out this year was the growing commitment to get communities meaningfully involved in the process of development and design, providing a sense of belonging and agency in the shaping of places and spaces.
''Awards programmes are particularly effective at promoting case studies and good practice. We're grateful for your support in sharing and celebrating these stories of place. Congratulations to the winners, and all the shortlisted projects:'
Find out more: For entry criteria, categories and sponsorship opportunties, email james@thedevelope1:live
The Pineapple for Place of tl1eYear
The £135 million second phase of the redevelopment of the Gascoigne neighbourhood consists of 434 apartments and four townhouses. Sixty-tv;o per cent of housing is designated as affordable with the remaining 38 per cent for private sale. Phase 2 includes a 5,000 sq m park co-designed with students from local Greatfields School and sitting in the heart of the neighbourhood.
Judges' con1111ents:
"The ~ite fulfils the design ol~jectives for a city at eye level and creates public ltLxury. Being tenureblind and 1nixed-use also achieves a pern1cable and varied con1111unityasset'·
Winner: Gascoigne East Phase 2, Barking & Dagenham London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and Be First with White Arkitekter, Civic Engineers, Turkington Martin and Willmott Dixon
Place of the Yearfinalists
MecliaCity and Quayside, Salford Peel Media and Landsec with Chapman Taylor
The 23.3-hectare site now hosts 7,000 residents, almost 10,000 students across five educational establishments, 250 small to medium sized businesses as well as some large corporates such as Kellogg's and ITV
Stanley Square, Sale Altered Space with SimpsonHaugb Architects
Just five miles from Manchester City Centre, the scheme includes 14 first-floor flex office spaces known as The ClassRooms, as well as updates to the public realm, additional food and beverage space, changes to unit sizes and a nursery.
Kampus, Manchester Capital & Centric and HBD with Native Residential, Mecanoo, shedkm and Chapman Taylor
On the old site of Manchester Metropolitan University, Kampus combines 534 build-torent apartments with independent bars, cafes and restaurants, acting as an extension to Canal Street.
Village, Wandsworth South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust and STEP
Integrating mental healthcare and community, the village provides 800 homes, a 12.9-hecta:re park, mental health facilities, an elder home, shops and cafes, and space to develop a school.
The £68 million scheme to refurbish the town hall includes restoration of the historic Ivor House; an 11,000 sq m civic hub; new Lambeth Council offices and archive space.
The 235-home social housing project in the South Kilburn Estate establishes a new public park, offering a civic square and public play space for the local community.
Four buildings contain 67 apartments, 34 affordable flats and student accommodation plus commercial space at ground floor level.
Springfield
Unity Place, Brent London Borough of Brent with Gort Scott, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Alison Brooks Architects
Your New Town Hall, Lambeth Muse and Lambeth Council with Cartwright Pickard
Magna Square, Egham Runnymede Borough Council and Places for People with Allford Hall Monaghan Mo1Tis,Elliott Wood, Atelier 10 and Graham Construction
The Pineapple for Public Sp,tce
Winner: West End Project, Camden Camden Council with Central District Alliance, LDA Design, Norman Rourke Pryme, Arcadis and Michael Grubb Studio Camden Council's £35 million investment into the area around London's Tottenham Court Road aims to dramatically enhance urban public space. The project reclaims road space for 0.7 hectares of new parks, squares and incidental pocket plazas and the reimagining of 0.3 hectares of existing space. Removing the one-way systems and reducing traffic on Tottenham Court Road and neighbouring streets and introducing a planting plan for over 1,000 sq m of new beds and borders supports an expansion of soft landscaping in the capital.
Judges' conunents:
'"Then1astcrplan
achieves sin1plicity \Vithin a co1nplcx urban environ1ncnt, successfully opening the locale for safer and pedestrianised streets and sn1all parks"
Public Space finalists
Regents Place, Camden British Land with Townshend Landscape Architects and Nex Architects
A 13ha mixed-use campus with a focus on office space. Significant areas of new planting, paving and street furniture create a habitable, attractive public realm.
Eddington Hotel, Cambridge edyn with dRMM, Robert Myers Associates and AvroKo
Public space is weaved throughout the plan, with shaded woodland and space for sitting, strolling, recreation and events of different scales. A rooftop terrace offers views over Eddington and beyond.
Green Spine, Westminster Westminster City Council with BDP, WSP and FM Conway
A new linear park creates a pedestrianfocused route running north-south along the Church Street development, including play areas, flexible spaces for local events, garden areas and fitness trails.
Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen Aberdeen City Council with LDA Design, Stallan Brand, Arup and Balfour Beatty
The £28.3 million project equipped the sunken park with extensive seating, new lighting features, artworks, 122,000 plants, more trees and the reinstatement of a planted city crest.
Pound's Park, Sheffield Sheffield City Council with Get Building Fund, Planit, Henry Boot Construction, Whittam Cox Architects, Dudley Engineers, Riveline, Julian Stocks and Timberplay
The park incorporates a 830 sq m meadow steppe and wooclland planting mixes with a diverse array of species and 39 new trees.
Glade of Light, Manchester Manchester City Council with Galliford Try, BCA Landscape, Planit and Civic Engineers
The memorial commemorates the 22 lives lost in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. Previous hard landscaping has been replaced by bio-diverse planting to create a tranquil environment.
Bishops Square, London Borough of Tower Hamlets Spitalfields Development Group with Foster + Partners and SEAM
The space combines retail and food kiosks, a reimagi.ned shopping street, and three landscaped areas with seating and a sheltered outdoor performance space.
The Pineapples for Creative :Retrofit
Winner: 3 Mills Studios, Newham London Legacy Development Corporation with Gort Scott and Freehaus
On the bank of the River Lea, 3 Mills Studios is the city's oldest surviving industrial centre. The retrofit project has created over 900 sq m of new workspaces for production teams through the adaptive and creative reuse of three key buildings: the locally listed Gin Still, the Grade II-listed Custom House and the Rush House. Flood-resilience measures have been employed to ensure the long-term preservation of the heritage site. Photo: Lorenzo Zandri
Community Engagement finalists
The £57 million renovation of the 27-storey tower includes improvements to local public spaces that contribute and reinstate the character of the 01;ginal designs.
Herman
The scheme renovated 136 occupied 1960s council properties to be low-maintenance near "net zero operational energy" homes, extending their lives by 60 years.
Bali'ron Tower, Tower Hamlets Poplar HARCA and Telford Homes with Studio Egret West and Ab Rogers Design
Bath School of Art and Design Bath Spa University with Grimshaw, Arup, Currie & Brown, Montresor Partnership, Mann Williams, Capita, Gleeds and Wilmott Dixoll1
Miller's 1976 furniture factory was purchased by Bath Spa University and upgraded to be used by around 800 students.
Nottingham Energiesprong, Nottingham Nottingham City Homes with Melius Homes, Studio Partington and Energiesprong UK
The Georgian e>..'ternalfacades of the Grade II-listed former Royal London Hospital are the key architecture feature ofWhitechapel High Street, and now house Tower Hamlets Town Hall within its 2.6ha site. The £125 million development includes an extension with six floors of office space for 2,470 courncil staff plus partner organisations, a new council chamber and meeting facilities. Photo: Timothy Soar
The 8,300 sq m retrofit project has restored the Grade II-listed department store's original features, and created mixed-use spaces, retail, leisure and office plus a biodiverse roof terrace.
The 1913 fire station had been derelict since 1990. The retrofit turned the plot into seven apartments and a ground-floor conunercial unit. Reinstated original elements include a lookout tower and former engine hall.
All Saints former orphanage was acquired by EPR Architects in 2016 and, after an e>..'tensiveretrofitting, has housed the firm's 150 staff since 2022 as an open studios for a collaborative style of working.
Winner: Tower Hamlets Town Hall, Tower Hamlets London Borough of Tower Hamlets with Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Richard Griffiths, Elliott Wood, Atelier 10 and Bouygues UK
Arding and Hobbs, Wandsworth WRE with Stiff+Trevillion, Knight Harwood, AKT II and Blackburn Co.
East Ham Old Fire Station, Newham Populo Living ,vith dRMM
All Saints, Southwark EPR Studio with EPR Architects and Kate Malone
The Pineapple for Con1n1unity Engagen1ent
Winner: Designing Cities for and with Women and Girls, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest
The London Legacy Development Corporation
Site experience walks with women, girls and gender-cliverse people developed a shared perception for LLDC's work in hotspot sites. A Women and Girls Safety Charter was signed by local key stakeholders and landowners to ensure an approach that aligns with the findings. The engagement project intends to influence infrastructure lists and planning powers, inclucling the allocation of Section 106 funds and the neighbourhood portion of Community Infrastmcture Levy money
.Judges'cont 1nents: "A • • al d nil orignr an very rigorous piece of ,vork ''
Community Engagement finalists
Hartree, Cambridge LandsecU+I and TOWN with Cambridge City Council
Forty-nine hectares of industrial and brownfield land are being transformed into a mixed-use neighbourhood for 10,000 people with the Engagement Strategy for Hartree at its core. The new cultural centre will include a mix of retail, hotel, community and leisure, education and public space.
Glade of Light, Manchester Manchester Ci.ty Council with Galliford Try, BCA Landscape,, Pia.nit- IE and Civic Engineers
The Glade of Light commemorates the 22 lives lost in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. A project board reported to the Manchester Memorial Advisory Group, who ensured the views of the victims' families were heard and reflected in the design.
The Phoenix, Lewes Human Nature with Periscope and Arup
The circular engagement group was initiated through discussions with the PhoenLx Rising campaign group, which initially opposed the South Downs development. More than 100 formal engagement meetings and a three-day design festival in 2021 have ensured a more sustainable and inclusive development.
Earls Court, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham The Earls Court Development Company with ZCD Architects
A public realm inclusivity panel engaged with 3,000 local people, while a community fund is available for local projects.
Eclgware Town Centre, Barnet Ballymore and Places for London ,vith Field Consulting, Howells, Gustafson Porter + Bowman and Savills
The drawing up a masterplan for 3,365 new homes involved meeting almost 3,000 residents in over 140 meetings to inform the scheme's community dimension.
Waltham Forest Affordable Housing Commission & Housing Strategy, Waltham Forest London Borough of Waltham Forest with Waltham Forest Affordable Housing Commission and PRD
A tenants and residents panel developed 27 recommendations for new social rent housing.
Church Encl Growth Area, London Borough of Brent Brent Council with Hawkins\Brown and Jan Kattein Architects
A masterplan was designed through work with the community in the form of face-toface consultations, an online platform and targeted sessions.
The Pineapples for Place in J?rogress
Judges· co1nn1ents: "The vision and quality shine through - fro111 the tenure-blind design to the thoughtful and a1nbitious align 1nent of people and environn1ent. This is reflected in the con1111unit)kitchen, which also provides an i1npo11ant resource to the con1n1unity in the cost-of-living crisis''
The Verdean is a £520 million development set to create 1,228 new homes, 455 of which will be affordable. Two residential towers will contain 160 and 170 homes respectively. Six per cent of commercial spaces will be allocated to local businesses. The scheme will incorporate additional public realm community connectivity improvements and biodiverse green spaces.
Place in Progress finalists
Rochester Riverside, Medway Medway Council, Countryside Partnerships and the Hyde Group with BPTW and LUC Development of a brownfield site includes 1,400 new homes, a 2.5 km river walkway, commercial units, parking, green spaces, a primary school, care home and hotel.
Town Centre West, Stockport Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation, Stockport Council, Homes England and Greater Manchester Combined Authority Includes 3,700 new homes, offices and community space. A transport interchange and rooftop park opened in March this year.
The Verdean, Ealing Peabody and Mount Anvil with Levitt Bernstein, Kew Gardens, Exterior Architecture, Light Follows Behaviour and Tigg Coll
Stockport
University of Glasgow Western Campus, Glasgow University of Glasgow and Multiplex with LUC, AECOM, 7N and Arup
Redevelopment of the Western Campus of the University of Glasgow includes the refurbishment of four buildings. One of these, the Adam Smith business school, required £50 million of the £430 million total budget. The project has 85,000 sq m of student accommodation, learning, teaching, and research space.
Harringay Warehouse Distiict, Haringey Provewell, with Ruth Campbell & Co, Tibbalds, Morris+Company, Container City and Dakota
The district will include shipping-container work units, a co-living mixed-use area, a cafe, artist studios and public realm improvements.
Includes a leisure centre to replace the former Britannia Leisure Centre, a 1,140-student school and hundreds of new homes.
Judges'
con11nents:
·'we
were in1prcssed by the 1>r~ject'srepurposing and reuse of existing buildings and features, use of recycled 1natcrials and focus on native biodiversity, as ,veil as pro1notion of active transport."
The Britannia Project, Hackney London Borough of Hackney with Tibbalds, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Faulkner Browns Architects
The Pineapple for Future Pl,1ce
Winner: Lancaster West Estate, Kensington and Chelsea Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team with Lancaster West Residents' Association, Karakusevic Carson Architects and Beyond the :Box
Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team was set up to oversee the refurbishment of the Lancaster West Estate. The 7-7-hectare estate contains 826 homes, which will be redeveloped with the addition of nursery and outdoor spaces. The £57.9 million project contains an initiative that employs more than 25 North Kensington residents in full or part-time positions within the development team.
Judges' con1n1cnts:
"This exan1ple of a con1n1unityfinding their own way to reco,·cr fro111the innncnsc challenges they have experienced over the last seven ) cars th rough 'people po,vcr' is rc1narkable"
Future Place finalists
Earls Court, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith &Fulham The Earls Court Development Company with Hawkins\Brown and Studio Egret West
The 16-hectare site will have 4,000 homes antd 240,000 sq m of workspace available alongside a network of gardens and open spaces.
Oxford North, Oxford Oxford North Ventures with Fletcher Priest Architects, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Stantec, Wilkinson Eyre and Gort Scott
Oxford's largest development project includes space for around 4,000 jobs, 480 homes, a hotel, and retail and conmmnity space.
Kensal Canalside, Kensington & Chelsea Ballymore and Sainsbury's with FaulknerBrowns and Spacehub
A 7.6-hectare housing site will deliver 2,519 new homes, with at least 500 affordable homes. The community will gain 362 sq m of free and open spaces, including new parks.
Red Bank Masterplan, Manchester Far East Consortium with Maccreanor Lavington, Schulze+ Grassov, Op-en, Useful Projects and WSP
The £4,801 home masterplan aims for half the 15-hectare area to be public open space, linked by a 1 km-long pedestrian/cycle loop.
Edl,•WareTown Centre, Barnet Ballymore and Places for London with Howells and Gustafson Porter + Bowman
The masterplan will deliver 3,365 homes, nearly half of them affordable, commercial, retail and leisure space and 4.8 hectares of green open space, including a nature park.
Golden Valley, Cheltenham Cheltenham Borough Council and Henry Boot Developments with Grimshaw, Grant Associates, HGH Consulting, Buro Happold, Vectos and EDP
Winner: Chmch Street Regeneration, City of Westminster, Westminster City Council with Bell Phillips, A.read.is,Stantec, Max Fordham, Savills, Flint and Camlins
The 3.84-hectare development site sits between Edgware Road - the neighbourhood's primary retail and commercial area - and quieter terraced streets to the north of Marylebone Station. It provides up to 1,200 new homes and 7,000 sq m of retail space. The project aims for a 40 per cent increase in publicly accessible open space and will support around 525 retail jobs and 3,500 constructionrelated jobs.
Judges' conunents:
"We ,vere i1nprcssed by the con11nitn1cntto the tenants who are there at the 1non1ent and the pro1nisc that they can return on their current tcnns. This is a good n1odel that could be replicated. The future of the place ind the 1narketis being ccn1cntcd"
Future Place up to 5ha fin:dists
Helping
Hands, Liverpool
The Independence Initiative and Neighbourhood with Studio MUTI
The project proposes using a 2ha site to provide temporary homeless accommodation in Bootle, building on existing infrastructure and improving social and civic areas.
Prestwich Village, Manchester Muse and Bury Council with Jon Matthews Architects and Planit-IE
The £100 million-plus regeneration creates a new centre of the community with up to 200 homes as well as a community centre, library, gym, village square and market hall.
The Littlewoods Project, Liverpool Capital & Centric, Liverpool City Region
Combined Authority and Liverpool City Council with shedkm
The refurbishment of this iconic 1930s building will create two new 1,858 sq m film studios, targeting big-budget film production.
South Molton Triangle, City of Westminster Grosvenor and Mitsui Fudosan UK witl1 Hopkins, BDP, Donald Insall Associates, Twin & Earth and WSP
The restored Georgi.an buildings ,vill provide a hotel, shops, cafes and restaurants, around 11 affordable homes and 22 private homes.
The Clay Community, Hambrook Tuckey Design Studio, Lehm Ton Ertle and Stonewood Builders
The proposal consists of 30 houses made from prefabricated rammed-earth blocks and also provides community green spaces.
The Pineapple for Activatiort
.Judges'conuuents:
"The prqject brought the <liffercnt groups using the space together and ,,,orked to overcon1ethe barriers and preconceptions associated ,vith young people and the elderly using our streets"
Winner: Bexleyheath High Streets for All, Bexley London Borough of Bexley with We Made That and POoR Collective
A series of events and activities were run from May 2021 till May 2023 to test new approaches to revitalising Bexleyheath town centre. The team behind Bohemia Place Market have been successfully running markets alongside community consultation, leading to wayfinding and accessibility improvements. The team conducted 14 youth workshops with 59 students aged between 11 and 18 along with eight older residents, while 180 young people took part in an online survey.
Activation finalists
PoliNations, Birmingham
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK with Trigger, THISS studio and Carl Robertshaw· During September 2022, at Victoria Square in Birmingham, PoliNations created giant architectural trees forming a canopy over a "super-garden" with live stages and various talks and workshops.
Assemble in the Forest, Bath Forest of Imagination, National Trust with Bath Spa University, Bathscape, RSA, Rainforest Concern, Grant Associates, HOI, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Invisible Studio Forest oflmagination 2023 celebrated 10 years of Forest of Imagination as a contemporary arts event in Bath.
We Invented the Weekend festival, Salford Peel Media, Landsec and Salford City Council with The Lowry, BBC, Hemingway Design and Q,uays Culture
The two-day free festival in MediaCity and Salford Q,uays includes 200 free activities available to access and an array of performances and participatory moments.
The Place Between, Milton Keynes centre:mk and IF with Jason Singh and Rebecca Louise Law
Last July at Middleton Hall, 15,000 people experienced this immersive installation, featuring 20,000 examples of plant and other materials, integrated with 200,000 of artist Rebecca Louise Law's ov"n items.
Five Yea.rsOn: Wembley Park's Cultural Placemaking Strategy, Brent Q,uintain with Futurecity
Across the 34-hectare site, Wembley Park's Placemaking Strategy showcases an annual line-up of free-to-attend public events in addition to the Wembley Park Art Trail public art programme.
Bringing the Wonder Back to Earls Court, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham The Earls Court Development Company with Hawkins\Brown and Studio Egret West
Bringing the Wonder Back to Earls Court aims to act as a home for creative talent and last year helped create £524,000 of social impact.
The Pineapple for Activation: tCollllllunity Space
Winner: Sparks Bristol, Bristol Artspace and Global Goals Centre with Invisible Circus
Located at 78 Broadmead Road, Sparks Bristol offers visitors retail and education opportunities from fashion and food to nature and energy. Since 13 May 2023, the project has had more than 376,000 visitors to It.heground floor, where visitors can ell.'µeriencea range of shops, installations, events and more in each curated department. The upstairs is a hub for local artists, offering affordable studios, rehearsal and performance space.
.Judges' conunents: "The prqject realises effectively its 'conununc not consun1e' rnessage, and proposes a strong 1nodel f<ff high-street regeneration that is responsive to the character and Yalues of its location."
Activation: Community Space finalists
Tooting Works, Wandsworth Business
Launchpad with alma-nae, Townlab and Dollman Ralston
Workspace for 68 organisations with 97 office spaces. Flexibility is enabled by the use of lightweight, free-standing furniture. An open kitchen and dining space supports the local community by facilitating cooking classes.
LJ Works, Lambeth London Borough of Lambeth with Architecture 00, Jan Kattein Architects, Public Works and Meanwhile Space CIC
A repurposed waste site comprises 1,750 sq m of affordable employment space with business support, training and retention of a local food-growing project for Brixton residents.
Houlton, Rugby Urban&Civic and Aviva Investor with the Houlton Project Team
A 470-hectare area is being developed into more than 1,000 homes built in five years, out of an eventual 6,200. Community activation comes in the form of a community gardens, voted on by locals and now with 66 active volunteers, aged from four to eighty-seven.
Greenhill Building, Harrow Harrow Arts Centre with Chris Dyson Architects, Webb Yates, KL.A,Studio Emmi and PT Projects
Farm buildings have been converted into temporary spaces with a new purpose-built multi-function arts building. Five flexible rooms host 1,000 classes and events a year.
Bell, TicehurstAre You? with We Like Today, Chris Baxter, Ben
Architects and Gleeds
The Bell, voted Sunday Times UK Pub of the Year, has been revamped and is a hub for social value with 100 people coming together each month for the village quiz.
The
Stagg
New
The Pineapple for Clin1ate R/esilience
Across 44 different postcodes and sites, Green UP has enhanced access to local greenspace for 500,000 residents, planted 100,000 trees and shmbs, and created accessible walking routes and a general increased footfall for local business. £4 million ofHm;zon 2020 European funding has supported the creation of40 innovative nature-based solutions implemented in city-wide renaturing projects.
Judges' conunents: "Ana1nazing prqject "·ith huge public engage1nent and brilliant accessibility. It \\'3$ investigative, strategic and inno,·ative. A really con1prchcnsivc, authentic way to try things out in the city"
Winner: Urban Green UP, Liverpool Liverpool City Council, Mersey Forest and University of Liverpool with reShaped
Climate Resilience finalists
The Forest Garden, Waltham Forest London Borough of Waltham Forest with HUT, HOS landscapes, Moira Lascelles and John Little
The .C60,000 project converts a traffic island into a low-maintenance and decorative urban garden, composed of recycled construction materials, with a number of new trees.
Grove, Edinburgh City of Edinburgh Council with Thomas & Adamson, Civic Engineers and Raeburn Farquhar Bowen
The scheme incorporates green infrastructure into Northfield Grove housing estate. It includes the installation of a "green spine rain garden" to control surface water runoff alongside soft landscaping improvements.
West End Project, Camden Camden Council with Central District Alliance, LDA Design, Norman Rourke Pryme, Arcadis and Michael Grubb Studio Multiple projects across the Tottenham Court Road area add 1,000 sq m of planting area and almost 2,400 sq m of new permeable paving for healthier streets.
Sands Place Plan,
The council is investing £120 million to address housing quality, flood risk and economic opportunity. The project includes affordable workspace in Sunspot business centre, including a covered market for the 3,000 people living within the flood zone.
Northfield
Jaywick
Jaywick Tendring District Council with HAT projects
The Pineapple for Infrastru<~ture
Brent Cross
Council and Related Argent with
Brent Cross West is the first mainline station to open in London in over a decade. Barnet is the first local authority in England to deliver a rail infrastructure project, securing £419 million of central government funding for the realisation of a 650 sq m site with four platforn1s. The station acts as a gateway to Brent Cross Town, the 73-hectare, £8 billion net-zero park town being delivered in partnership with Related Argent.
Judges· co1nn1ents: "Infrastructure is at its best ·when it n1akes a ·wider i1npact beyond in1n1ediate and physical con ncctions. Brent Cross West station acts as a n1odel for future rail infrastructure projects by integrating the social, en, ironn1ental and cultural a~pects of the place into the pr~ject"
Winner:
West, Barnet Barnet
Mace and Studio Egret West
Infrastructure finalists
Market Gate Bridge, Barnsley Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Network Rail and the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority with Waterman, IBI Group Architects, Arcadis and Keltbray
The 35m-high A-frame, cable-stayed bridge supports active travel across the Barnsley interchange in Barnsley town centre.
Newport Active Travel Bridge, Newport Newport City Council with Grimshaw, Arup, Cass Hayward and Alun Griffiths
The bridge incorporates SuDS and a new plaza within its £10.5 million budget. The amphitheatre-like space is intended to be used for a variety of public activities, such as performances, exhibitions and events.
The Pineapple for Future PulblicRealITI
The £6 billion Meridian Water project, one of the largest regenerations in London, has a scope of over 25 years. It will provide 10,000 homes over its course ,vith the first 20 delivered in September 2023, including family-sized housing, accessible homes and single-bedroom flats. Enfield Council funded the £46 million Meridian Water station, completed in 2019, and considered a lynchpin for the development.
Judges' conunents:
"This pr~ject is huge and the irnpact ,,,ill be at a city scale, den1onstrating cli111ateresilience and a co1nprehensh·einterplay ofhealth and econo1nics. The engage1nent see1ns totally genuine; there has been a really rohm;tpublic consultation and they lut,·c brought the conununity on board ,vith the111"
Winner: Meridian Water, Enfield Enfield Council and Strategic Infrastructure Works with Taylor Woodrow, Arup and Stace
Future Public Realm finalists
Dock Branch, Birkenhead Wirral Council with OPEN, Mott MacDonald, BB Heritage and Walker Sime
The transformation of the Dock Branch railway line will create 21,000 homes plus commercial space, with 800m of the line forming the start of a wider linear park.
Woolwich Town Centre, Greenwich
Royal Borough of Greenwich with LDA Design and Studio Weave
A biodiverse, climate resilient market garden adjacent to a public square. The project will seek to construct a permanent market pavilion structure for hosting public events.
Devonshire Gardens, Cambridge Railpen and Socius with RH Partnership and LDA Design
Three buildings, set in a new public park, will contain 70 homes with no reliance on fossil fuels. The scheme will incorporate raini gardens and pollinator habitat.
Aberdeen City Vision, Aberdeen Aberdeen City Council with LDA Design, Fairhurst and Systra
The scheme rejuvenates over 65,000 sq m of public realm, split across seven key development areas. The design includes play areas, public art, events spaces and greening.
St Paul's Gyratory Transformation Project, City of London
City of London Corporation with NRP, LDA Design and Transport for London
The closure of a three-lane carriageway will create a 3,000 sq m public area, focused on green infrastructure and sustainable water management.
The Pineapples for Building I
The Appleby Blue Almshouse brings a new retirement community to Bermondsey with housing, a community centre and garden and communal kitchen. Of the fifty-seven new homes, fifty-one are one-bedroom flats and six are two-bedroom. The sociable design of the building enhances the life ofresidents and contributes to the surrounding city.
Building finalists
.Judgcs' conunents: "Appleby Blue is to be praised RH'its connection to the conununity, a1nazing progranuuing and quality architecture, ·with a progrannue worth a1nplifying as a de1nonstrator project inner-city livingfi>r ageing in place"
Place,
with LOM architecture and design
New work campus for 6,000 Santander UK employees, designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent and WELL Gold. The £150 million project also gives public access to an "urban market", retail outlet, community spaces, health facilities and a terrace cafe.
The £4.6 million development will serve as a temporary space until the development of Olympic Legacy Plan housing. Five buildings bring together workspaces, including maker's shops, artists' studios and a public market hall and events space.
Winner: Appleby Blue Almshouse, Southwark United St Saviour's Charity, Southwark Council and JTRE with Witherford Watson Mann architects
Unity
Milton Keynes Santander UK
Hackney Bridge, Hackney Make Shift with Turner Works
The 2,000 sq m Storyteller library, cinema and housing block fully opened in summer 2023. It consists of a three-screen independent cinema, a cafe, nine apartments, co-working space, a gallery and a Changing Places sanitary facility.
The £6.2 million development is located on the high street of suburban Sidcup. The project iisDRDH's first public building in the capital.
contemporary office and retail spaces. The 26,000 sq m project is part ofregeneration around the
A 360-seat theatre with shelter from the elements allows visitors to
about the local
.Judges'conuuents:
"I'he council spotted the high street ,vas failing and took the initiative to intervene, resulting in a building of calibre and civic pride. The council kept hold of the con1111unitvbenefit. of ., this prqject, saYcd a n1ature tree and increased footfall on the high street"
Winner: Sidcup Storyteller, Bexley London Borough of Bexley with DRDH and Really Local Group
Soho Place, City ofWestminster Derwent London and Nimax Theatres with AHMM, Amp and Laing O'Rourke Combines a 600-seat theatre with
Elizabeth Line's Tottenham Court Road station.
Living Wetland Theatre and Waterscapes Aviary, Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trnst with BD Landscape Architects, Kay Elliott Architects, Hoare Lea and David Dexter Engineers
pause and learn
\vildlife.
The Pineapple for Internatic,nal Future Place
The first phase of the masterplan concerns 128 hectares of land adjacent to the Gilgai Woodlands Nature Conservation Reserve. The project addresses challenges posed by Melbourne's rapidly growing western suburbs, with new and improved public spaces across the site. Harkness will be adapted as a multi-use space for memorialisation and community needs.
Judges' conunents:
"Acon1pelling exa1nple of using a developn1ent process as a ,vay of recognising and repairing hann. The de~ign ,vas a negotiation, death sat side-by-side ,vith the needs of the living conuuunity, celehrating the heritage and spirituality of 1nultiple cultures"
Winner: Harkness Memorial, Melbourne, Australia Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust with McGregor Coxall, Aurecon, Architectus, Greenshoot Consulting and Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aborig~nal Corporation
International Future Place finalists
Thank you to our judges and chairs
Judges
Marie Williams, founder and CEO, Dream Networks
Amandeep Singh Kalra, associate director, place and design, Be First
Melissa Lacide, senior engagement officer, Q,uality of Life Foundation
Noah Clrnlu Chinn, co-founder, SUM weekly
Rose Marshall, associate director, ING Media
Singapore Makers Land, Singapore
Jurong Town Corporation with Broadway Malyan, Savills and Arup
With 1.3km of river frontage, the Makers Land is a proposed arts district for the existing residential community and industrial estates within the Kallang Kolam Ayer masterplan.
David West, founding director, Studio Egret West
Ellie Cosgrave, director of CIC and research, Publica
Cannon Ivers, director, LDA Design
Prachi Ran1puria, co-founder and directo1~ EcoResponsive Environments
James Stockdale, development director, Muse
Christopher Arthey, director, Axiom Developments
Micro Colony, Bangladesh GROHE with UArchitects
This proposal for coastal locations in Bangladesh comprises Iha of water based infrastructure, a fixed island to combat the intensification of floods with accommodation for approximately 50 people initially.
Dm1can Laird, head of urban, National Trust
Chris Williamson, chair, Weston Willian1son + Partners
Eleanor Fawcett, head of design, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation
Pepper Barney, founder and managing director, BiBO
Chloe Mcfarlane, engagement lead, Tranquil City
Dr Bridget Snaith, lecturer, University of Sheffield, and partner, Shape Landscape Architecture
Nick James, director, Futureground
Sophie Thompson, director, LDA Design
Felicity Maries, community development and partnerships manager, Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team
Clive Nichol, founder and CEO, Fabrix
Morwenna Hall, partner and COO, Related Argent
Rebecca Thomas, director, Fathom Architects
Gabriel Warshafsky, director of projects, Jan Kattein Architects
James Bruce, director, Civic Engineers
Rachel Bell, director of Partnerships, Stride Treglown
Ben Adams, founding director, Ben Adams Architects
Richard Coppell, group development director, Urban&Civic
Julian Tollast, head of masterplanning and design, Q,uintain
MagaH Thomson, project lead for placemaking, Great Ormond Street Hospital
Will Sandy, founding director, Will Sandy Design Studio
Catherine Dewar, regional director North West, Historic England
Clarissa Bromelle, head of social imagination, Human Nature
Alison Benzimra, head of research and influence, United St Saviour
Rene Sommer Lindsay, associate urban designer, AtkinsRealis
Paul Monaghan, executive director, Allford
Hall Monaghan Morris
Blossom Young, head of operations, Poplar HARCA
Elaine Cresswell, director, reShaped
Soham De, co-founder and director, EcoResponsive Environments
Alice Lester, corporate director for communities and regeneration, London Borough of Brent
Chairs
Laura Mark, university teacher and first year co-lead, Sheffield School of Architecture
Mark Hansford, director of engineering knowledge, ICE
Steve Taylor, writer and editor
Roxane McMeeken, director, ING Media
Leah Stuart, director, Civic Engineers
Emma Maier, behavioural scientist, Goldsmiths University and Hitachi
Romy Rawlings, director, DeepGreen
Sea Gardens, Bray, Ireland
Ballymore with Howells Architects
Sea Gardens in County Wicklow aims to connect the city and coast for the Bray community. The project will provide 1,200 two and three-bedroom homes across the forty-hectare site with more than nine hectares of public open space in addition to a new five-hectare central park.
Rob Sloper, senior development director, LandsecU+I
Martin Prince-Parrott, founder, Sub/Urban Workshop
Duncan Paybody, director oflandscape, Studio Egret West
Ruth White, team manager, placemaking and mobility, City of Edinburgh
John Stiles, principal urban design officer, London Borough of Brent
In the photobooth:
Rio Cinema, Dalston, east London
invites people into the photohootl1 at the Grade II-listed cinerna and asks then1 about ho,v I>alston has changed in recent years
In the photobooth Raffaele (30), artist from Trento, Italy
How long have you been living iu London? More than five years now, \\ith three in Hackney. What are the pros and cons ofliving in east London? There is always a lot goimg on, a lot of e\'ents and it's full of creative people. I love going to the cinema and here there are a lot of independent ones around, it feels special. Cons might be that ifs not eas) to commute to other areas \\ith public transport. I live in Hackney Wick in a warehouse and gentrification ha'>been going on for a while there. Lots of warehouses ha\'e been demolished to make space for Oats, and prices are going up a lot What are other changes you have noticed in the area'?The newly built Uats and apartment buildings are kind of erasing the local fabric. You lose the local shops to more pricey hip stores selling the same products as everywhere else in London but we are losing a lot of community spaces What would you change if you had a magic wand? fd create more gathering spaces where people can meet, create events without the need of structured organisations. These would give the opportunity for people to create new friendships, which is really hard in London. It's in those tiny spaces and tiny realities that I have found people like me, people I share interests \\ith
In the photobooth Gwen (32), assistant manager of the Rio Cinema. From Tucson, Arizona, USA. Lives in Clapton What would you say is the role of the Rio Cinema in this community? I think ifs quite a hub for general cultural activities. Ifs where communities come to showcase, to bring to light issues they are facing or to celebrate local artistic outputs, ideas, different cultures and languages, different styles of creation. Ifs a place that tries to bind the different elements of I Iackney and then showcase it hack to itself What are the changes you have noticed in this area over the years? ·when I started working here it was nowhere near as busy. There wasn'1ta fanc) apartment hotel. It was a crappy Tesco and a bunch of shops that were probably fronts. NO\\ a lot of people come here for nights out. The energy especially after the pandemic really changed Is this a positive or a negative'! A lot ofhusinesses seem to he really thriYing. Some I really liked aren't here anymore and some are getting stronger. I think ifs a natural part of a modern city. It adapts and some things make it and some don't. Ifs abo interesting to see ho\\the cnlture moves around the city What would you change if you had a magic wand? I'd probably change prices back to what they were eYen two years ago. Ifs sad to think of people I used to hang out with not heing able to afford the area an)111oreand even myself not being able to afford a night out where I used to Do you have any hope for the future of this area? I think so. People here are so proud to be from here that I don't see it becoming a high street like any other in the country. It will always have its own cl1aracter
In the photobooth Ror, (28), marketing and community manager at the Rio Cinema, from London How long have you been living in the area? I\e lived in Dalston and Hackney for about sh years What are the changes you hiavenoticed in this area? It has been changing dramatically. I came as gentrification wa,; well undenvay in Dalston. A lot of building works haw been surrounding the cinema. I remember being able to look out the \\indow and kind of see into a distant skyline but now we haYe big hotels and big apartments blocking the \iew. \Ve have also seen the audience change at the cinema as a consequence of gentrification, a lot less of a local comm unit) What would you say is the role of the Rio Cinema in this commllllity? It is a community hub and is meant to bring people together and kind of share these beautiful stories. I love the parent and baby club we have and the classic matinees, which are screenings with a discounted rate for people over 60. I think the Rio ha<;an important role in ensuring that culture and the arts remain aecessible to everyone
In the photobooth Lucia (35), artist from Guatemala City, Guatemala What are the best aI11dworst things about Dalston? The best things are the street life, the people. The worst thing would probably be the empty shops and sometimes the smell How much has it changed since you moved here? It has changed a lot, especially \\ith regards to the nightlife. There are a lot of people from the cit) who come with money for a night out, thinking they can go anywhere or in any clubs and just be rude, not appreciating the community or the locals. A lot of shops have changed and the market is smaller. I hope Ridley Road Market gets a bit of gro\\th soon but ifs still getting support and it's still there which is the most impo1tant thing W11atwould you change if you had a magic wand? I would create more comm unit) spaces for sure, more parks and maybe take away some of the new flats that have been built because there should be more space for people to roam around and also more opportunities for people to meet and mix at all ages. I would change the price ofrent. It is a really exciting place but I'd love ifit was more affordable to get some people back in the area. people that hm·e been priced out oYcr the years
