Stratford Civic Centre

What Stratford would look like if ‘people’ and ‘planet’ were at the heart of its regeneration policy?

knowledge exchange and collaboration with Grow Studios, Creative Land Trust and LB of Newham (ongoing)



Stratford has got plenty of places for work, live, study, shop, leisure, entertainment and a vast travel infrastructure. If cities were machines for living and working, Stratford would be a perfect city. But life is more than that, cities are not machines, and Stratford is far from perfect. What is it missing then?

This project, a collaboration with Grow Studios, Creative Land Trust, Purcell Architects, London Borough of Newham, Unit A (University of East London) and Studio 2 (Central Saint Martins), proposes to explore this question by taking Stratford Civic Centre as our study area, and engaging with Newham's ambitious vision to place ‘people’ and ‘planet’ at the heart of public policy in the regeneration of Stratford Town Centre. As part of this new agenda, LB of Newham welcomed Grow Studios, an affordable workspace and artist studio provider, into Alice Billing House, the former Stratford Firefighters’ accommodation, and a listed building which remained empty for decades and was brought back to life by the Creative Land Trust with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The opportunities and conflicts arising from emerging creative uses and shifting demographics will become the starting point for our social-spatial investigation, and for the development of transformative strategies and interventions that can foster urban and civic life and reimagine Stratford Civic Center as a place for local people, for new social situations and new ecologies.

Policy context:
2023 Stratford Town Centre Vision and Strategy
• 2023 Just Transition Plan for the London Borough of Newham 

Keywords: civic, regeneration, creative industries, affordable workspace, existing city, urban transformation, socio-spatial relationships, interdependencies, artists’ studios, social life, transformative capacity.


WHO IS ABOARD?

Collaborators:
Jordana Greaves - Grow Studios
Margherite Metz - Grow Studios
Yves Blais - Creative Land Trust
Simon Cole - Hackney Tours
Alex Peacock - Purcell Architects
João Mendes - Purcell Architects
Shabana Qadir - London Borough of Newham

Researchers:
Carsten Jungfer - Aboard and UEL 
Fernanda Palmieri - Aboard, UEL and CSM
Oscar Brito-Gonzalez - CSM

Status: ongoing

Support: Creative Land Trust and National Lottery Heritage Fund

Students aboard:

Unit A - UEL BA Architecture design studio - academic year 2024-2025:
Tutors: Carsten Jungfer and Fernanda Palmieri

Year 3: Baris Freed, Elizabeth Johns, Emanuelly Cardoso Santos, Katarzyna Szczegielniak, Marwah Ali,  Amiran Khan, Sunamita Russu, Yogesh Mall.
Year 2: Azra Tamer, Ahab Nawab, Ismail Bendaba, Madihah Hajar, Neusa Nancassa, Rohan Robinson,Yasmin Reames, Zaynab Ahmed.

Studio 2 - CSM BA Architecture design studio - academic year 2024-2025:
Tutors:
Oscar Brito-Gonzalez and Fernanda Palmieri

Year 3: Brandon Yi-ming Chang, Farida Doss, Lara Balkas, Lucy Fallon, Chelsea Huang, Blessing Kabengele, Sanjana Narayanan, Hiten Odedra, Max Tickner, Vicky Wang, Zhiye Yao.
Year 2: Stella Al-Azawy, Syed Alam, Celine Dastori, Cindy He, Abigail Holland, Yunxi Liu, David Liu, Jaycee Matunog, Liya Nachmias, Silvia Rana.