ARCHIVE:
Roy Coupland and Yang Yang Chen
Yang Yang Chen (she/her) and Roy Coupland (he/him) lead CITIZEN, the London School of Architecture’s project delivery office that focuses on enabling community-led projects having worked previously for design-led practices such as Witherford Watson Mann, Herzog & de Meuron and Niall McLaughlin Architects.
They also lead the school’s Access and Outreach campaign, Part 0, overseeing four courses for 11-19 year olds and delivering (Un)Building and the LSA’s EPQ in Architecture.
Fundamental to the London School of Architecture’s access and outreach campaign, Part 0, is the idea that individuals should feel empowered to be curious about, and potentially critical of, the built environment. Similarly, CITIZEN, the LSA’s project delivery office, has been established to realise community-led projects that are borne out of such criticality and understanding of place. For this reason, the walking tours led by Open City, Seeing Architecture and The London Ambler this month particularly stand out as they re-introduce familiar, well-known parts of the city and offer an opportunity to think about how they have come to be.
Unfortunately, rushing through the city without paying it much attention is all too easy and it is often only after years of training that those working in the built environment sector begin to notice particular details of buildings, or the public realm, and consider how they might have otherwise been composed.
The selected walking tours each give an insight into the development of their respective areas of London. The Nine Elms Walking Tour will reveal how the former ‘opportunity area’ has been transformed by speculative housing developments, a curated public realm and the rehabilitation of Battersea Power Station. Similarly, Open City’s King’s Cross Walking Tour will present the history of the area’s redevelopment. Much like Nine Elms, the former industrial zone has been transformed into a mixed-use district that offers a very specific vision of what public space might offer and how it might be inhabited.
The Belsize Park: Modern Approaches to Housing and SOUTH BANK – Architecture, Politics & Play Things walking tours, led by Seeing Architecture and The London Ambler respectively, both showcase provocative alternatives to how the city can incorporate considerate housing schemes and public cultural space. Pondering these very different approaches to developing the city and its public realm reveals the potential of community-orientated city-making.
While the selected architecture tours discuss particular areas of the city, books such as Cook’s Camden describe the context in which much of the housing built in Belsize Park was constructed and Rowan Moore’s Slow Burn City and Iain Martin’s Crash Bang Wallop present overviews of the city’s physical development and its history as a centre of trade, complimenting the architecture presented in each of these tours.
The opportunity to learn about the city through these amazing walking tours resonates with the LSA’s ambition of empowering those with an interest in the built environment, offering an insight into the history of London and provoking thoughts of how the city might be shaped to be more inclusive and diverse. Provided you come prepared for the changeable weather, these will be great ways to spend your weekends in October in London!
