Open City's first Live Magazine

In addition to the regular programme Open City hosted our first ever Live Magazine. We shared ideas and provocations at a half-day get together – the Green Sky Thinking Live Magazine –  held at the UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture and sponsored by VirtrA, to capture a more rounded picture of the city-making debate happening across London today. The mix of speakers and topics was broad: from character-led urban design methods at Brent Cross South with Argent, to the all-woman design and engineering team of the VeloCity project, enhancing the Oxford – Cambridge corridor. We even reserved a spot to celebrate journalism too, and the ethical role it can play in making better cities.

If you missed Open City's first Live Magazine the morning this is a recap of the thought-provoking perspectives shared and debated.

Session 1 - People first at Open City  

Over the past year Open City has been working on a variety of projects, and we took this opportunity to give an insight into the new and exciting collaborations we have been part of. Our work with Argent, Beispiel and Graeme Nicholls Architect best highlight how we imagine the urban environment of future London, they encompass ‘People first at Open City’.

Rosie Cade of Argent and Sven Muendner of Beispiel presented how ‘character-led urban design’ and a magical mystery tour of Peckham helped reshape the masterplan for Brent Cross South. Based on a daylong design challenge when four interdisciplinary teams imagined a day in the life of future residents living and working in the Argent Related development, the collaborative approach highlighted the importance of the rich experiential character of a place. Rosie stressed ‘we wanted to get away from a drone's eye view and rethink the masterplan from the ground up’.

Next, Graeme Nicholls presented 99 Fountains, a public realm project produced with Open City that aims to reinvigorate London’s civic infrastructure - while commemorating the women who have shaped the city. How? Through introducing three water fountains into each of the 33 boroughs of London, all formed through Ruben’s Goblet of inspirational London women. Not to mention the fact that it will hopefully stem Londoner addiction to plastic water bottles!

Session 2 - Social networks 

Our second session of the morning embraced new urban designs that are re-using existing infrastructures – road networks, railways and rivers – to create new social networks. All the projects convinced us that the existing infrastructure we have is a worthwhile asset, it just needs to be unlocked.

Jennifer Ross, director of Tibbalds and Sarah Featherstone of Featherstone Young kicked off this session, passionately presenting their VeloCity project that reimagines the Oxford to Cambridge corridor by putting bikes first. The strategy introduces 400,000 additional homes to the area, however not within imposing new developments but by building upon existing villages clusters. It questions whether by 'taking the car out of the equation, you can create the opportunity to make uninhabitable spaces habitable again'.  Through good design, each place can retain its ‘modern picturesque’ character, yet provide vitally needed housing and still only be a 15-minute cycle ride from key transport hubs.

Next, we heard from the Open Water team made up of Chris Romer-Lee of Studio Octopi and artist Amy Sharrocks. Their mission is to a make the world a wetter, better place. However it was not a plea for more rain, but a call for more access to urban water and the realisation that London’s largest nature asset is actively underused. Through their crowdfunded Thames Baths that completely redefine our relationship with the Thames and alongside the Peckham Lido proposal, and the rather glorious Swimmoblie project they are fighting for us to be able to reconnect with the water that feeds our city. Amy wholeheartedly willed us to understand the importance of ‘revelling in the dirty waters of London’ and to appreciate the pure pleasure of making a splash.

Nick Woodford rounded off our session on infrastructure with a discussion of the progress of the Peckham Coal Line project. This resident-led initiative aims to repurpose disused rail coal slidings into a 1km long elevated urban park - a green ribbon cutting through an ex-industrial area for walking, cycling, ambling and appreciating the public realm. Having got off the ground with the support of crowdfunding from the local community, it praises the value of common spaces and showcases people power. Impressively, they managed to instigate 429 objections to a planning proposal that conflicted with communal interests in the coal line. Now they have secured planning for the first section just off Consort Road, providing new homes, jobs and green space around preserved heritage and public access.

Session 3 - ‘Whose city is it anyway?’

Our final session of the morning got personal. We questioned how self-build, online civic action tools and co-housing can help citizens shape the streets and buildings of their own towns and cities. The three projects included in this session empowered people to make the city they wanted to live in.

First Sarah Ernst, an architect from Architype laid out the work they have been developing alongside the Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS). The project, located on a community land trust accommodates 33 self build affordable homes in Ladywell, Lewisham. It’s unique co-design process addressed resident requirements from initial brainstorming workshops up to detailing the customisable finishes. The final scheme offers a cohesive streetscape but also allows individuals to express their own character. This process meant they could make genuinely affordable homes that give the residents a sense of ownership. But their work hasn't stopped there, RUSS have persisted and Sadiq Khan has now committed to achieve 1000 community land trust homes by 2020. Keep a lookout!

Then it was time to hear from Mark Cridge, chief executive of mySociety. He discussed the digital platforms they have developed that empower communities to change their own neighborhoods. Services such as, ‘Fix My Street’ and ‘What Do They Know’ demonstrate the need to make knowledge more widely available and to streamline communication between the public and local authorities. It’s easy to understand why they have over 11 million users worldwide. However, the focus of his talk was on their newest platform - ‘Keep It In The Community’. This offers a place where anyone can register an ‘Asset of Community Value’ and subsequently protect it from disappearing. The platform will allow the public to have a voice into what really matters to them - perhaps unsurprisingly a significant number of pubs have already been registered.

The session was closed with an insightful glimpse into the New Ground Co-housing scheme designed by Pollard Thomas Edwards for the Older Women Co-Hosing group - OWCH. Patrick Devlin, one of the architects behind the project discussed the collaborative design process of this unique typology, praising the determination and input of the women behind it. Hilary Vernon-Smith, a current resident, drew the picture of life at New Ground. It was clear to see Hillary's pride of her home and community. As she put it plainly, ‘I just love living there’. It also appeared that the scheme benefits more than just the resident women - when one of the ladies underwent a heart operation, she was released from hospital much earlier than usual as a result of the over 20 other women caring for her day and night, saving thousands for the NHS. It demonstrated how redesigning the way we live in later life could create significant benefits for more than just the older generation.  

Spotlight features 

True to our Live Magazine format we included two spotlight features, addressing unique topics close to our ‘people first’ theme but also snippets into wider issues. Our first of these came from AHMM’s Simon Allford unpicking the possibilities of the universal use class. Interviewed by Sven Muendner, Simon proposed that this generic building class could offer the best stage for the theatre of life. He argued, "People matter more than buildings, cities matter more than buildings but we need to ensure they have the personality and the charm to survive time".

To close off the morning, the man who broke the garden bridge left us pondering the ethics of procurement. The journalist Will Hurst shone a light on the story of the murky commissioning processes favoured by Boris Johnson during his mayoralty. Walking us through the five key moments of the process he highlighted the importance of cross-profession collaboration in shaping the construction industry for the better.

Final thoughts

The opportunity to hear from such a range of individuals on the future of the city is not an event that happens often. Our first Live Magazine gave a platform to projects we at Open City feel should be shaping new urban design. We’ll be hosted one again soon, so make sure you stay tuned for the next one! 

A special thank you to VirtA and UCL, without their support this event would not have been possible.