Planning Action OKR Workshop 2019

A two-day workshop exploring alternative design scenarios for the Old Kent Road, for London Festival of Architecture 2019.

This workshop, which took place 8–9 June 2019 at 231 Old Kent Road, as part of the London Festival of Architecture, engaged with Old Kent Road as the subject of huge redevelopment plans. It was funded by London Met and by a Crowdfunding Campaign and was a collaboration between Peckham Weeklies, Action OKR, Vital OKR and AAD Cities.

We asked local stakeholders: what do you think your high street should be like? How can we ensure a diverse and thriving future? What should we urge Southwark Council to do? Local people were invited to drop in to the free workshop for model-making and drawing in the OKR Design Challenge (imagining alternative scenarios for the Old Kent Road Opportunity area), discussion, fact and idea gathering, guided walks and more. It was supported by volunteer architects, planners and academics who were on hand over the weekend to help the discussion, working with local residents and businesses to sketch out a people’s plan for a better Old Kent Road high street.

The weekend included free guided walks around one of South London’s oldest thoroughfares, the Old Kent Road which has a rich history of pilgrimage and trade; today it’s home to a population of 35,000, as well as microbreweries, multicultural cafes, artists, manufacturers, evangelical churches, independent shops. How can proposed new developments occupy a boundary space between the past and future of the Old Kent Road?