Resourceful City: An Exploration from Elephant and Castle to St George’s Circus

Our studio exploration in 2013-14 was based between the Elephant & Castle and St. George’s Circus in south London. Within this historic stretch are a host of territories and interests, including a recently vacated and demolished, large-scale social housing estate called the Heygate Estate, the London College of Communication and London South Bank University, and the Elephant & Castle transport intersection. A number of pieces of land in the area are subject to private redevelopment, including the Heygate Estate and the Elephant & Castle shopping centre. Urban renewal within this historic stretch takes on multiple forms and values, all of which are defined by the current economic crisis and a new political momentum for regeneration. It is an area in which the large-scale displacement of people has been further amplified by the soaring land values in London together with the dismantling of inner city social housing stock. Resourceful City expands our understanding of what it means to be resourceful in a period of economic austerity.

– MSc City Design and Social Science 2013-14 Studio, LSE Cities