Boosting Hyper-Adjacency
Industry is Back!
Degree Show - Central Saint Martins (UAL)
June 2016
In a context of crisis and housing struggles, industries are ceaselessly being pushed away from our cities, while activities traditionally servicing city centres are now occupying industrial areas. Following this shift, unexpected new situations are flourishing in areas like south Old Kent Road, one of the last industrial sites in central London, where blacksmiths and record-shops, coachworks and churches, printers and ice-cream-vans coexist everyday.
Industrial production is silently experiencing unprecedented transformations which suggest that many could perfectly fit into the city fabric, mixed with other uses, even housing. More people also work and produce from home nowadays, compromising the need of separating uses.
Cities should learn how to integrate these production networks back into its grid, by unlocking inflexible zoning policies. Industry should be explored as a catalyst for the granular and diverse cities of the future, wherein the hyper-adjacent situations would bring unforeseen yet invigorating richness.
