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Creating a platform for a public debate about the design quality of London’s public spaces
Themes:
Regeneration
Design quality and innovation
Planning
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Focus:
Creating a platform for a public debate about the design quality of London’s public spaces |
Background:
New London Architecture (NLA) draws together information about what is going on in architecture and design in London; a range of activities bring together stakeholders, planners, designers, developers and other interested parties to explore and define what is happening, what could happen and should happen to specific development areas in the context of the London Plan development framework.
The permanent NLA gallery houses a large 1:1500 scale model of central and east London. A display about the Legible London programme and a response mechanism ran during the Public City exhibition and still continues. Legible London addresses issues relating to the Mayor’s ambition for London to become a world-class walking-friendly city.
The Public city exhibition was held for 8 weeks in the NLA temporary gallery.
A series of talks and workshop seminars reinforced and aired issues raised by the exhibitions.
Following the success of the ‘Civilising Spaces’ exhibition which launched the Mayor of London’s 100 public space schemes, it became apparent that there was need to look more broadly at London’s public space schemes to reflect the quantity of work taking place across London. |
What happened:
The exhibition and talks programme ‘Public City’, curated by New London Architecture, provided a comprehensive overview of 120 of London’s public space schemes both in terms of quality and quantity. It reflected current good practice in public realm design and included completed, current and due design schemes. The programme highlighted relevant themes and practical issues such street maintenance, use and change of materials, quality of design maintenance and raised real problems faced such as the impact of chewing gum on street surfaces. The ‘Public City’ series of talks attracted the highest number of visitors to date (over 100 people at each event), the exhibition was visited by over sixteen thousand people and the catalogue has been downloaded from the website 21,320 times. The unexpectedly high level of response both in terms of submissions and attendance reveals a real interest by both professionals and the public in getting involved. |
Who was involved:
New London Architecture
Partners
Central London Partnership
LB Camden
LB Lewisham
LB Southwark
City of London Corporation
Transport for London
British Waterways
Lovejoy London
Funders
Grosvenor
Minerva Plc |
The difference it made:
No where else in London do architects, planners, developers, local authorities and the public talk get together to talk about these issues. The ‘Public City’ programme has created an important and timely public catalogue and free resource that documents what is currently happening in London in the design of the public realm. The talks provided a unique opportunity for eminent speakers to publicly address contentious issues such as congestion charge and pedestrianisation and provoke animated discussion across professions.
It provided a focus for the Mayor of London to explore a range of topical design issues prior to the 2012 Olympics and provided the public with a chance to find out more about how their city is being designed and the sustainability agenda. |
What they said:
“The NLA has become one of the most important places in London for the discussion of issues relating to the environment and planning. “
(Peter Bishop, Head of Design for London, London Development Agency)
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Future possibilities:
Include a greater level of local community involvement in new developments. Explore the possibilities for holding design reviews of exhibited schemes. |
More information:
www.newlondonarchitecture.org (see Archives/Public City for downloads)
www.legiblelondon.info (have your say or to find out more information) |
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Themes
regeneration
design quality and innovation
planning
sustainable communities and place making
young people and communities
climate change
housing |
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