This was a competition organised by the Architecture Foundation and developer First Base to design a public space in the London Borough of Southwark. Our proposals aimed to redefine the public realm as an urban park with buildings integrated within it, rather than streets confined by buildings. We envisioned using trees and planting to draw the park into the streets and introducing new paths and routes to open the park to the streets. This project was delivered with Jason Malyan & Francesco Bernabei.

We believed this concept had the potential to transform people’s perception of the public realm, potentially fostering social cohesion through a sense of territory and encouraging more active use of the streets. We sought to integrate planting seamlessly into the neighbourhood fabric, introducing ecology, seasonality, and colour into the urban landscape. To achieve a more sustainable approach, we proposed sharing maintenance responsibilities between the community and the authorities. We designed spaces that could allow the community to explore small-scale edible landscapes and urban forestry.

Competition display board