Open House London 2019 Theme: Social

Is there another word that more neatly sums up what it means to live in cities today? From the way social media is shaping our cities – clients now ask architects for ‘instagrammable’ buildings – to the ongoing debate on social housing and how much of this crucial resource London needs to build, ‘social’ spells out the urban condition. ‘Social infrastructure’ for example describes the everyday things that makes a city tick, the parks, play areas, sports, faith and recreation facilities woven into our neighbourhoods.

And it’s why this year the Open House theme is celebrating all things, Social.

Working with our partners and participating buildings we will be exploring four different elements of the word social and their relationship to the built environment. We have partnered with Clarion Housing Group and Pollard Thomas Edwards to look further into Social Housing as well as opening up as many public housing schemes which are being used today. Architecture and good housing design should be built to encourage its residents to come together and engage with one another and create safe environment for all to explore their local areas, we want to encourage more Social Communities to come together, bring life to their neighbourhoods and have more of a say on their local areas. 

More and more the term Social Infrastructure is being used, but what does it mean? and how does it impact you and your daily life? London has a plan to develop its social infrastructure and we will be looking into future plans and how this will have an affect on your local areas and development. And lastly we are currently doing some investigating into how Social Media is being used within the architecture and design industry, it is beginning to infiltrate the way architects design today? Is it a useful tool for the industry and should we be using it more?  

In the lead up to Open House London this year we will creating interesting content and engaging with our social media follows more on this topic, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to find out more. Or alternatively subscribe to our newsletter below.