Tumpa Fellows, Senior Lecturer of Architecture at the University of Westminster and a Southwark Council Design Review panel member, organised a collaboration between Southwark Council’s Regeneration team and students on the Architectural Technology BSc Honours course, where they are exploring the area of Peckham through various methods of community engagement, a process which ensures that communities in Peckham that will be affected by any developments have a voice in the process and can input their opinions and ideas.
Peckham is known for being a very multicultural area, with over 70% of the population being Black or Asian, leading the students’ research to focus on underrepresented demographics in the area. In the context of racial and social inequality and climate injustice, they have been exploring research questions such as: what are the effects of gentrification in the area? In the context of health inequality, how are the communities suffering disproportionately from the coronavirus pandemic? And, how is the burden of environmental crisis disproportionately affecting the low-income communities living in high risk areas?
The students’ projects propose design interventions that respond to the communities’ needs at key civic spaces in Peckham town centre, such as Peckham Rye Station and Peckham Square, with initial research and design briefs also focusing on investigating urban infrastructures that aim to coexist with the natural and built environment.
The students’ findings from their community engagement work in Peckham has been translated to visually represent the research with architectural mapping drawings. They have also produced short films about Peckham and the current issues that communities in the area are facing during the pandemic.
University of Westminster News
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Featured image: Velina Drakalieva’s project in Peckham