Studley Commons
Studley Commons (SC) illustrates a framework within the social housing where residents become Commoners. Exploitation of “resources” is primarily for the benefit of residents and secondarily that of the wider, local community. SC’s programme will strive to improve Commoners’ lives by delivering services in health, social cohesion, skills and access to platforms supporting collaborative work and play. This is delivered by activating existing vacant spaces and eventually, if deemed agreeable by Commoners, intervening on underutilised spaces, like its large interstitial greens, with temporary structures.
The key enabling innovation is the introduction of Studley Hyperlocal; a commercial, retrofitted rooftop greenhouse horticultural operation on the roofscape of the 16 blocks of the Studley Estate in Stockwell and the ceding of a proportion of Studley Hyperlocal’s equity to Studley Commons affording it a dependable “Social Dividend”, committed to developing its programme of activities and initiatives. Studley Hyperlocal draws horticultural inputs from Studley Commons/Studley Estate resources including human, waste (organic, thermal losses, carbon exhausts, etc…), and incident (sunlight, rainwater, etc…). SC benefits directly from SH’s social dividend, food outreach programme and complementary security strategies. SH and SC, therefore, co-evolve in tandem, reflecting this in their management structures which drive the search for operational and metabolic synergies on a dependable financial framework.
Oscar Rodriguez, Director, Architecture & food, Lead Author
Oscar is an architect and Building Integrated Agriculture specialist advocating for how urban food production can serve the urban realm
Christina Edoja, Senior Housing Officer, The Hyde Group
Christine has worked with the Stockwell community and offered her insight into the nature of Studley David Rowe, Estate Services Manager, Studley Estate, The Hyde Group
David Rowe has worked with the Studley Estate for over a decade and explained how the estate is managed, the day-to-day issues it faces and how some of the spirit of the proposal has already been enacted
Eike Sindlinger, Senior Architect, Arup
Eike has worked on numerous Urban Agriculture projects at a macroscopic/masterplanning scale and is one of Arup’s leads in this field.
Dr Paul Challinor, Horticultural Consultant, The May Barn Consultancy
Paul provided core horticultural expertise supporting the development of the proposal
Barry Mulholland, Director of Horticulture, Adas UK
Barry provided a more top-down view on how the proposal would have to comply with F+V regulations and further horticultural expertise.
