The RA present the results of an ideas competition which invited architects to come up with new and creative uses for London’s brownfield sites.

2015 saw London finally surpass its pre-war population peak. The metropolitan area of Greater London is now home to 8.6 million people, with little sign of the growth slowing down over the next few decades. As a result thoughts are turning to the suburbs or the Green Belt to help cope with London’s population increase. But even after the urban renaissance of the last thirty years, which revitalised the city centre – in part by redeveloping vast swathes of former industrial land – many brownfield sites still lie empty, unused and awaiting development.

This provides the basis for Urban Jigsaw – an ideas competition the RA launched in July 2015 which invited architects to develop speculative proposals for brownfield sites across London. They asked for ideas that were creative, imaginative, research-driven, and, ultimately, capable of realising the potential of these missing pieces of London’s urban jigsaw.

In October 2015 the RA selected four teams to move forward. In November 2015 and March 2016 they will present their ideas to an expert panel at public “crits” before unveiling their work-up projects in April 2016 in a month-long exhibition.

Information will be added to the dedicated RA page as the project unfolds.

Running time:
27 April — 29 May 2016, 10am – 6pm