Thamesmead on the Map
‘Thamesmead on the Map’ is a story about everyday affordability, spatial needs, and artistic endeavor. Located in the southeast area of London between Greenwich and Bexley, Thamesmead is home to a diverse ethnographic makeup. The ‘city in the east’ is poised for sustainable growth strategies at a time where young city dwellers continue to generate micro economies through cultural production throughout London.
London is a city in transition, a city that is rapidly urbanizing to meet the demands of its growing demography. Its multicultural and creative characteristics give it a unique identity, and its River Thames and Thames Estuary serve as London’s gateway to the world. Human settlements, docks, and industrial hubs line the Thames Estuary – and with the growing creative industry and the need for more inclusive infrastructure and accessible resources, the four Londons (north, east, south, and west) must work together to best serve the anticipated rapid growth and proliferating diverse population of London.
Thamesmead has a unique cultural heritage, having evolved over the last 50 years - especially as migration patterns have significantly shaped the region. With its iconic Brutalist architecture created during the modernist art movement, Thamesmead is a place where innovative responses to societal changes related to industrialization get seeded into the built environment. The future of Thamesmead is rich and bright with artistic and cultural interest – therefore, ensuring that built environments support diverse lifestyles is key to collective living.
To tell the story of Thamesmead, a group of creatives has been positioned to radically reclaim space in the suburb. The creatives are looking for space to make, live, and be in proximity to a larger network of resources. The story seeks to ask: how might art produce culture? And could culture lay the foundation for a new village built into the network of greater London and the Thames Estuary Production Corridor? A series of planned strategies imagines temporal events, temporary-use agreements, goods trading, small-scale development negotiations, and community interfaces to depict the evolution of Thamesmead in a radical but sustainable method.
Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2021 / Advisor: Kathryn Firth