Marxism and London Episode 1: Nothing is Too Good for Ordinary People

Core Landscapes, a meanwhile based project in East London delivered by leading Mental Health Charity Core Arts, is a community garden space that teaches horticultural skills to promote positive wellbeing. The programme at Core Landscapes provides horticultural skills to those suffering from poor mental health, as well as a space for the wider community to engage with growing, and greening up public space around East London. In this film, horticulturist Nemone Mercer leads a tour of the rooftop garden, and explores how access to green space and access to green education is a tool to promote positive well being. Reflecting on the relationship between architecture and wellbeing through access to green space and green education, this project offers insight into improving wellbeing in our built environment, and the impact utilising underused spaces in our city can have. This film is part of a 3 part series, exploring the role of wellbeing and architecture around East London kindly supported by Allies & Morrison.

The Lee Navigation Canal follows one of the most socially, architecturally and historically diverse parts of London.Following the Olympic Games in 2021, and the Olympic Legacy Masterplan, the route that the canal follows through this area of East London unveils a myriad of public and private investments and an ongoing transformation of this piece of the city, that is continuing to undergo redevelopment today. In this film, Emad Sleiby (Director at Allies & Morrison) and Eleanor Fawcett (formerly Head of Design at the LLDC) lead a tour of the recent transformation of the area by following the canal and the multiple new bridges installed, to explore the new places of exchange, and the rich character and diversity of spaces that can be mapped along this route. This film is part of a 3 part series, exploring the role of wellbeing and architecture around East London kindly supported by Allies and Morrison.

Our mental health is a sign of defiance,

—that we can’t take it anymore…

—and these questions

attempt to audit - our industry’s culture, for us to be...

architecture’s beneficiaries,

the possibilities

are as endless - as our imagination’s

accessibility to optimistic design,

or - our ability,

to influence (the) plans,

reflecting non-receptive minds.

(You - decide).

Words by Architectural Poet Lionheart.

Poetics of Experience is a four-part series in collaboration with architectural poet Lionheart and Grimshaw Architects, exploring the relationship between Architecture and Wellbeing. All episodes available to watch now.

The 2012 Olympic Games were the catalyst for creating a new park in the contaminated Lea Valley and delivering regeneration. The Olympic Legacy Masterplan builds on the unprecedented combination of concentrated public investment in land, transport, infrastructure, housing, and sports amenities at the Olympic Park, to capitalise on these built assets in the unique setting of the River Lea, and create a piece of the city. In this film, Bob Allies (Partner of Allies & Morrison) leads a tour of the Olympic Park- following the adaptation of legacy buildings such as the Velodrome, Aquatics Centre, stadium and press centre, the creation of five new neighbourhoods, new schools, and the extensive landscaping across the former industrial site. This film is part of a 3 part series, exploring the role of wellbeing and architecture around East London kindly supported by Allies & Morrison.

This large Victorian property in Hampstead has been carefully renovated and restored by Dominic McKenzie Architects to create a luxurious and sophisticated family home. Clad in bespoke bronze tiles, the striking new extension follows the triangular gable-end profiles of the main house and surrounding architecture to create a generous and light-filled dining space on the ground floor, and office space with a large openable picture window framing the garden on the first floor. In this Open City Film, Dominic McKenzie reflects on the process of restoration to fulfil the client's brief of a "beautifully restored period house, which has been moved into by a cool 1950s Scandinavian family.

Renovated throughout the pandemic, the newly completed National Youth Theatre has been redeveloped with young people, for young people. The new design by DSDHA has now doubled the building's capacity for studio space, and features a new front pavilion- better integrating the institution into its longstanding home on Holloway Road.

The Abbey Mills Pumping Station is central to the sewerage system created across London in the mid-19th century. Built to lift sewage from the low-lying sewers, it collects a huge amount of the capital’s wastewater, transferring it to our northern outfall sewer and on to Beckton STW. Built by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, Edmund Cooper and architect Charles Driver. Built between 1865 and 1868 it has been described as the cathedral of sewage.

Vanbrugh Park Estate is one of the lesser-known housing estates designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon - a practice renowned for designing the Barbican Estate and the Golden Lane Estate in the City and London, now considered some of the most important architecture in London. 

Commissioned by Greenwich Council in the 1950s, this mix- tenure site includes a tower block, mews terraces, and raised bungalows on garages- all tied together with sensitive landscaping and recurring architectural motifs.

In this film, Open City speaks to two residents of Vanbrugh Park to find out what living here looks like, and reflects on what we can learn from a council housing estate like this today.

Formerly unused land next to Guy Thomas' Hospital, this urban farm designed by Feilden Fowles sits in the heart of central London.