Events of 2020 stand as a timestamp for a collective shift in consciousness to our heightened awareness and understanding of inequality and its interconnected causes. This was the moment when the past caught up with the present, catalysing a widely felt compassionate

desire for social justice, equity, and inclusion to reframe our approach to society.

Our physical environment is critical to closing the disparity in how we experience life through our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. How much we feel ‘at home’ or feel welcomed to belong, contribute and share in the fabric of our social life, is dependent on how our environment services our need to live healthier longer lives.

London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with more than three hundred languages spoken every day. Yet much of our built environment reflects London’s Victorian era and the wealth the city accrued through its complex involvement in the slave trade; a narrative that has excluded the histories and cultural contribution of many communities who make London one of the world’s most sought-after cities to live, work and do business in.

Over three years the GLA Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm has overseen the development of projects, like Untold Stories, which celebrates the representation of London’s diverse population visibly in our public spaces. The success of the work has engaged over two thousand Londoners from diverse communities in sharing their histories, and cultural distinctions in projects across the capital’s landscape, creating a broader idea of what it is to be a Londoner and bringing visibility and agency to communities that have previously felt excluded from London’s visual narrative. The recent re-naming of TfL’s London Overground lines and new Rainbow Plaques created in partnership between London LGBT+ Forums Network and Studio Voltaire, initiated in 2018 and supported by The Mayor of London’s Untold Stories Fund and Wandsworth Oasis, are testament to the aims of the commission’s work.

The project has delivered agency for communities who feel respected as Londoners and positively engaged in shaping London topography.

The tone of an area is carried in the spaces between buildings. The scene in which life happens and the possibilities we set for communities to thrive, live in our facades, squares, high streets, and civic spaces. In many places, poor maintenance and extended vacancy has baked disparity and disadvantage into our urban landscape rather than setting the scene

for wellbeing.

The built environment industry carries a responsibility to design spaces that support the adjustments we need to make as the climate transitions and protects us from the impact of rapid change. Improving the quality of life now is a priority for the built environment industry—engaging, listening, and acting upon community-led solutions that seek to reverse harm, and promote a sense of optimism for future generations.

Developing London as a fair and equal city that values its diverse communities as essential to our combined history, present, and future, we need to make a visible, sustained, and authentic commitment to maintaining the environment equally across the city with public and civic space that welcomes, protects and cares for all Londoners regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or economic status.

Brixton greets you with the road bridge ‘Come in Love Stay in Peace’ designed by Resolve Collective and chosen by the community in 2018. Less than 50 yards away the redevelopment of Brixton Arches has taken nearly 9 years to complete, replacing a vibrant local shopping area with unkempt vacant units, flyposting, and graffiti, is now overwhelmed by social challenges that make the area a hostile environment for communities.