25 ideas revealed on Reimagine London shortlist

Wednesday 31 July 2024

Vote for the People's Choice Award

25 ideas revealed on Reimagine London shortlist

A new central London skyway, urban farming on the underground and micro-gardens in parking spaces – do these ideas provide the solutions for London’s future?

NLA has revealed the shortlisted ideas that reimagine London with innovative, community focussed visions to tackle some of London’s most pressing challenges including accessibility and sustainability.

Over one hundred ideas were received with more than half submitted by individuals or groups under 35 years old. Submitters were required to tackle a real issue London is currently facing and a focus on environmental sustainability and reclaiming streets for pedestrians were clear themes throughout the shortlist.

Ideas on the shortlist range from radical rethinking of how London’s underground network could be leveraged as urban farms, entertainment spaces and logistical routes, to a community striving to transform a concrete area of Waltham Forest into a vibrant and biodiverse community park.

One ambitious vision from architecture practice Able Partners reimagines London’s transport priorities with the proposal of ‘The Attenborough Line’, which lifts mass transit off the ground with cable cars above a pedestrian superhighway running straight through the capital with green spaces to play, interact, rest, eat, compete, watch, dance and thrive.

Community was at the heart of several of the shortlisted ideas with priorities placed on fostering spaces for locals to come together through community assets like pubs, music venues, and supporting new methods of community engagement.

Examples include 3 young people from Brixton with a vision for a Youth-led Empowerment Network that reimagines London’s unloved and forgotten spaces to encourage connection, development and opportunities for young people, and the Buro Happold x LDA Design vision for HubPubs which would see existing space of pubs to provide local services to all corners of the community such as café, creche, workshop, donation hub.

Accessibility was also a clear priority, with one group from London School of Architecture exploring how disabled communities use and navigate public spaces at night, emphasising the impact of inaccessible nighttime spaces on community areas, public facilities, and social venues. Elsewhere, Turley and Edge Urban Design proposed accessibility hubs to hire mobility and sensory aids, provide accessible toilets, seating, quiet rooms, lockers and information to support people in their daily lives and their journeys across the city.

Check out the full shortlist below and cast your vote for the People's Choice award.

There is a £10,000 prize fund for the winners and they will be revealed at a VIP reception in September, alongside an exhibition at The London Centre.

Reimagine London Shortlist

The vote is now open for the People's Choice award. Review the shortlist below and then cast your vote for your favour new idea for London.

Voting closes Friday 6 September!

Cast your vote for the People's Choice award

A Possibilist Patchwork: London’s Micro Green Grid

Submitted by EcoResponsiveEnvironments, studio 8FOLD, Where Pathways Meet
A proposal to leverage AR and VR technologies to empower local citizens to co-create a network of micro-green spaces at residual and leftover urban spaces around houses and housing estates, along streets and other city infrastructures.

ADAPT Rethinking Skyscrapers

Submitted by NAME architecture

ADAPT proposes a visionary solution to retrofit vacant buildings, such as the HSBC headquarters in Canary Wharf, with residential units across four distinct communities: Elderly Retirement Homes, Student Accommodations, Family-Friendly Homes, and Luxury Housing, plus urban parks, sky gardens, well-being spaces and mixed-use facilities to deliver a more sustainable future for our city’s empty real estate.

Chimney Pot Turbines

Submitted by Richard Birch and Elena Kosseva

A simple, cost effective yet innovative and high impact proposal to generate clean renewable energy for a healthier and more resilient future economy and citizens by adding turbines in existing chimney pots. By repurposing a much-loved original London feature renewable solutions can be provided even in sensitive areas with heritage character, where roof structure does not allow photovoltaic panels to be installed or where costs or planning policy prohibit installation of heat pumps.

East London Waterworks Park

Submitted by East London Waterworks Park

A community-led proposal to acquire a 14-acre concrete slab in Waltham Forest and transform it into a vibrant and biodiverse community park. There will be wild swimming, a forest school space, studios for artists to experiment and collaborate, and a mosaic of dry and wetland habitats for wildlife to thrive and for people to enjoy.

Her, Their, Everywhere: Reclaiming the city as a feminist laboratory

Submitted by Publica CIC

This ambitious proposal takes over the city by asking women, girls and gender diverse people to set a vision for an inclusive city, analysing the issues, and transforming London’s public spaces. Using streets, buildings and open spaces as laboratories, our travelling programme combines research, idea generation, and practical actions to place women’s safety at the core of urban design for the whole capital.

House of Hackney

Submitted by City Post Policing – a group of LSA Students: Sakariye Ahmed, Bonnie Ha, Polly Chiddicks, Abel Asmah, Wiame Azzouzi and Benjamin Daughtry.

A proposal to replace Hackney's Met policing structure with a collaborative multi-agency approach where safety is integrated into community care and empowerment. It integrates new innovative practices to create adaptive and responsive safety solutions that cater to the community’s evolving needs including transforming Stoke Newington Police Station into a community hub, providing toolkits for Design in Community and creating community touch points.

Into the Dark

Submitted by London School of Architecture - Nick Blacker, Domnic O'dea, James Langham, Molly Robinson, Alfonso Pedrosa and Corben Lai

Nighttime spaces are practically non-existent for disabled people, and this contributes to a sense of vulnerability that the public realm should seek to counter. Into the Dark explores how disabled communities use and navigate public spaces at night, emphasising the impact of inaccessible nighttime spaces on community areas, public facilities, and social venues.

Made for Me

Submitted by Turley, Edge Urban Design, Matter Space Soul, You See Media and Mend

‘Made for Me’ is a proposal for interconnected hubs for accessibility, retrofitted into pre-existing spaces, transport interchanges throughout London. Hubs allow you to hire mobility and sensory aids, they provide accessible toilets, seating, quiet rooms, lockers and information to support people in their daily lives and their journeys across the city.

Music Gym

Submitted by Ruth Harper, Londoner with support from Adam Johnston, Dipa Joshi and Megan Dixon

Music Gym unlocks the opportunity of music-making when you can’t afford, store or play instruments at home. Turning large urban premises that’s not suitable for housing into a soundproofed, welcoming space for tutoring, charities, team building, band rehearsals and instrument hire and unlocking the health and wellbeing benefits of music for all.

Nomadic City Hall for London

Submitted by Erlend Christopher Larsen Birkeland

A proposal for a Nomadic City Hall relocating every 3–6 years to a newly restored structure in a different part of London. Each new location will additionally hold other amenities that are needed locally—like a library, adult learning centre or an after-school hub—which remain after City Hall relocates.

Reimagining TfL bus stops as social infrastructure

Submitted by Dani Abrams, student at the London Interdisciplinary School

Waiting spaces such as bus stops are overlooked as technical facilities, despite their accessibility for repeated encounters among diverse ‘familiar strangers’ each day. By adapting seating arrangements, adding interactive screens, and implementing zoned areas to provide opportunities for open communication, shared focal points and shared experiences, bus stops can be utilised to foster communities.

Sedimentary London

Submitted by Boji Hu and Ya Liu

This idea opposes Excavation, Demolition, and Expansion and provokes Reuse, Repurposing and the Re-assembling by sourcing material from the city and densifying existing urban fragments as sedimentary layers. This geological approach to our city pictures a future where wholesale demolition is completely restrained by local planning policy. Any building that becomes unusable will have to be repurposed and densified for longevity.

Space Match

Submitted by Fletcher Priest Architects

Space Match is like Tinder for buildings: a platform that connects underutilised urban spaces with community groups, young people, startups and creatives struggling to find accessible, affordable spaces to thrive in London. It unlocks the amenity potential of underused spaces such as offices, which are empty almost 80% of the time when you factor in weekends, bank holidays and occupancy rates.

Sustainable Sustenance: Future Food City

Submitted by Phoebe Lawrie

Industrial-scale urban farms built above railway stations, looped together with the underground tube network, and the underground sewage system, to re-use waste heat to keep the greenhouse warm in the winter. This reduces operational costs, energy consumption, and reduces the amount of waste heat contributed to the atmosphere, the combined effect would feed the city, while reducing its emissions.

Tasty London in Tonbridge Street

Submitted by Xueying Ren

An idea focused on creating shared community spaces that provide opportunities for urban farming and foraging. These activities foster community interaction, trust, and education in nature management. By leveraging innovation and working in partnership with local organizations and residents, this project ensures inclusive participation and promote sustainable practices.

The Attenborough Line

Submitted by Able Partners

An ambitious vision to reimagine London’s transport priorities with the proposal of ‘The Attenborough Line’, which lifts mass transit off the ground with cable cars above a pedestrian superhighway running straight through the capital with green spaces to play, interact, rest, eat, compete, watch, dance and thrive.

The Garden Permit

Submitted by ABHR_A with George King

A proposal is to re-designate the land in front of people’s homes by creating a new Garden Permit. The residents of every road vote on the amount parking bays to open for garden applications. Operated like allotments, residents can apply for a garden bay, priority for those without gardens first.

The HubPub on Smorgasboard Street

Submitted by Buro Happold x LDA Design

The HubPub model seeks to broaden the appeal of pubs to all corners of the community. A flexible ‘kit-of-parts’ approach will make each one unique: café, creche, workshop, donation hub. Each one suited to the specific needs of the community they serve.

The regenerative power of artist communities in creating new third spaces

Submitted by Kindred Studios

A methodology that aims to create a new kind of ‘third’ space evolved by artists for everyone. It works by acknowledging artists as keystone species that have a disproportionate effect on spaces around them. Artists are supported with affordable workspaces then carefully nurtured into a culture of community, made possible using the unique qualities of art. In return, artists create beautiful and unique community spaces with a rich cultural programme centred around culture and cohesion.

The Rhythm of the Water

Submitted by AtkinsRealis

As social connections drift apart, this proposal reclaim them with floating infrastructures for community gatherings. With London’s famous underground tubes at risk, underwater energy generators would be implemented, turning tidal movements into sustainable power sources.

The Well-Line

Submitted by Laurie Chetwood, Chetwoods Architects

The Well-line will transform the disused underground Post Office Railway into an adaptable high-speed logistics route, reducing traffic congestion and pollution. The proposal reimagines London as a city with a network of multi-purpose places and spaces, supplied and connected via a repurposed underground brownfield site, delivering long-term health and environmental improvements to Londoners.

The Westway Reimagined

Submitted by Diana Hare on behalf of the Westbourne Forum

We propose a phased programme of interventions and improvements leveraging funding from advertising totems, sponsorship, and community focussed developments in and around the structure to elevate the quality of life for the wide range of people impacted by The Westway.

Unearthing the London Underground

Submitted by Heidi Loh Au-Yeung

The proposal explores the potential of excavating the earth between ground and tube level to create new a public space, restoring Piccadilly Circus as a place for people rather than a traffic junction. At the street level the proposal revives the plans of Walkable London, the pedestrianised streets will connect Regents Street to Leicester Square while underground will see cultural and music destinations come alive.

Urban Family Housing

Submitted by Assael

A manifesto for a new typology to fill a gap in the market – where places for children to play are prioritised, childcare settings are integrated, and communities are fostered. Focused around adapting urban housing models to include community space with childcare, outdoor spaces and flexible homes to grow with a family.

Youth-Led Empowerment Network

Supported by We Rise Brixton and PRD

A proposal from 3 young people from Brixton with a vision for a Youth-led Empowerment Network that ‘Reimagines’ London’s unloved and forgotten spaces, bringing peace, safety and connection to neighbourhoods. Spaces like community and housing estate halls, parks, streets - public spaces at the heart of communities.

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