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.