Affordable London
Partner: City of London/University of the Arts London
Designers: Claire Ongaro, Irene Amuyunzu, Tesa Koga, Tracy Sam
A pertinent issue in London is gentrification, and the subsequent displacement of people. One affected neighborhood is Hoxton Square, often called the Silicon Roundabout, seeing an influx of people moving in and the expansion of technological business.
We wanted to enable community members to weigh in on community improvement: preserving the old vs. investing in the new.
We designed an interactive display that allowed Hoxton locals and visitors to indicate their preferred balance of preserving the old vs. inventing the new. In other words, viewers actively protest against the old or against the new, finding balance they wish to see.
We proposed creating a structure that resembled a massive scale, with a phone booth in the center. The right side of the phone booth would look like one you’d see on the streets of London: red, worn, decorated with occasional discarded chewing gum, empty inside except for the actual phone. This represents “preserving the old”, or how the city is before gentrification takes place. The left side of phone booth would represent “inventing the new”, what it may look like when gentrification occurs. It is painted bright yellow, stuffed with mason jars and succulents, Apple products, coffee signs with expensive prices, and whatever else is deemed cool, hip, and artsy.
In order to make the exhibit interactive, there is one bucket on each side of the telephone booth. On the side of the traditional red telephone booth is a worn out bucket and on the other side is the yellow polished bucket. Below the buckets are small ceramic bricks with the pros of both sides of community development in the neighborhood engraved in each block. People can take a brick and choose to place it on the red side if they think community improvement is a con and on the yellow side of they support community development.
Sketches and prototypes:
Poster for marketing:
