This project seeks to challenge the status quo of contemporary housing production in London, which currently advocates large scale new build developments treating housing as a commodity. This project aims to explore an alternative architecture created from reuse of the existing building fabric as a template for additional production. This is part of a wider proposed approach using large cooperative structures to enable housing to be provided to residents at greater levels of affordability. This is crucial in high value areas such as West London, where the site is located. The polemic of this project is not of complete systemic change in the production of housing, but that a responsive approach could exploit the gaps left in current strategies of housing planning at scale. The supporting of alternate institutions that can use the discard of current housing production productively is a symbiotic approach that could be applied across London as ever more industrial ‘Opportunity areas’ are rezoned for housing.

James Smith

︎Year 5