Urban Room OKR campaign

Urban Room OKR makes space for local people to engage with the plan-making process, and for developers and planners to hear the view from the street.

Launched in 2019, the campaign to crowdfund Urban Room OKR was led by Action OKR and Vital OKR, supported by AAD Cities, Peckham Weeklies and others. The project sought to convert a space on the Old Kent Road as a hub for communication between planners, urban designers, governance bodies and local stakeholders.

It was intended to transform a commercial unit on the Old Kent Road into an accessible hub for local planning; build large-scale models of the Old Kent Road to help people visualise the area as it is, and as it could be; create a program of imaginative events and activities that engage local stakeholders and the wider public with planning; prepare an audit of the area’s existing uses and a catalogue of local opportunities; organise planning workshops, debates and exhibitions about the past, present and future of the area; provide a space for consultations that brings together all parties with a stake in the area’s future; create a hub for clear information on the area’s numerous planning applications for non-professionals and to unite local organisations around shared objectives.

The crowdfund raised more than £57k and grew from the success of the two Cities/ActionOKR Planning Action OKR Workshops which took place as part of the London Festival of Architecture in 2018 and 2019.

“At the moment, the extensive redevelopment plans for the Old Kent Road threaten to displace many of the people, spaces and activities that currently characterise the area. The industrial sheds and small independent businesses employ around 10,000 people and provide the basis of a strong local economy that is under threat. We want to explore how housing, industrial use and public realm can be combined within mixed-use developments that benefit everyone.”

— Urban Room OKR Crowdfund Campaign