Newham Character Study
End-user research based study exploring the concept of the 15 minute neighbourhood to assess access across Newham to everyday essentials and culture close to home
London Borough of Newham commissioned a multidisciplinary team led by architects Maccreanor Lavington and supported by New Practice and Avison Young to develop the Newham Characterisation Study, a key piece of evidence used by the Borough to inform future planning decisions as part of the Local Plan. The commission was created to work with local communities to produce a thorough understanding of Newham’s neighbourhoods and produce a vision for development based on 15-minute neighbourhood principles.
The Characterisation Study provides the Council with a detailed understanding of Newham’s diverse neighbourhoods, and how these neighbourhoods overlap and interact with one another. It contains a wide range of knowledge and data, including information on economic performance, architectural and urban form, and the physical and cultural heritage of Newham.
To help inform this gathering of knowledge, New Practice led a comprehensive mixed-approach engagement process, calling on the people of Newham to share their thoughts on their local neighbourhoods - what works well and what could be improved, how easy it is for them to access everything they need in their daily lives, and the spaces and landmarks that make their neighbourhoods feel like home.
Delivered at key stages across the Covid-19 pandemic, the engagement programme was developed to be empathetic to the needs of the Borough’s highly diverse and often deprived communities, and offered both digital, analogue remote, and in-person activities, including a roaming series of pop-up engagement events, with a cargo-bike engagement vehicle travelling to all 20 of the Borough’s Council wards.
The project resulted in the development of a comprehensive mapping and analysis, and proposal of new character and neighbourhood areas and strategic and informed recommendations for development of key sites, as well as community and commercial hard and soft assets.
Supporting youth co-design
Over the course of five weeks, New Practice worked with a group of young people to develop designs to inform future development of the Borough’s programme of Low Traffic Neighbourhood installations.
The Borough hopes to embed place-based design thinking into the development of modal filters and other traffic management installations, to ensure that they benefit local residents and contribute to the improvement of the public realm.
New Practice created a Low Traffic Neighbourhood design programme that focussed on supporting interested young people in developing their design skills and experience.
If you would like to learn more about our work to support youth co-design, please contact info@new-practice.co.uk
Client: Newham Council
Location: Newham, London
Completion: 2022
Collaborators: Maccreanor Lavington, Avison Young, Luke O’Donovan, Sadie St. Hilaire