Young people unveil visions for major Islington redevelopment site

A team of four young women has won a “shadow” design competition for the multi-million pound redevelopment of the St Luke’s site – which includes Finsbury Leisure Centre - in south Islington.

The competition aimed at young people was run by Open City for Islington Council.  It ran alongside a Royal Institute of British Architects competition, which will select an architectural practice to lead a major redevelopment of the site, in Bunhill ward.

Forty 14-18-year-olds – half of them from Islington – took part in the Open City competition, which challenged them to replace the existing 1960s buildings with a new leisure centre, energy centre, nursery, health centre, sports pitches and new council homes.

They worked in teams of up to four to develop their own architectural designs, with four workshops, the option of a site walkabout and the chance to receive feedback and advice from professional architects.

Winning team Natasha Atam, Ola Adeyemi, Bareera Borhan and Aqsaa Hasan were given their prize – a promise of two weeks’ paid internship at the winning professional practice - on 17 February at a ceremony in Angel.

Suzie Zuber, head of advocacy and enabling at Open City, said: “It was a pleasure to run the competition for Islington, giving the teenagers an insight into how architects approach a design project and instilling in them the confidence to create their own response to a complex and exciting design brief.

“Islington's idea to run a shadow competition for aspiring young architects is an inspirational form of consultation that Open-City would love to run in other London Boroughs.

“The young people were thankful for the opportunity to engage in architectural design and meet experienced professionals in the industry.”

Cllr James Murray, Islington Council’s executive member for housing and development, said: “We want to give young people more opportunities in shaping their city.  This competition also gave a great introduction to architecture and design to young people from a wide range of backgrounds.   We’re really proud of what the young people produced.”

In the RIBA competition, the council has selected five outstanding architectural practices – Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Grimshaw, Hawkins Brown, Pollard Thomas Edwards and Henley Halebrown Rorrison - to produce initial design ideas for the site.  The local community will have the chance to see and comment on the designs in late spring 2016. 

Victoria Thornton at Open City added: “Islington Council's approach to actively engage the future generation with the design of their facilities will hopefully be recognised as the best approach and be replicated time and time again.”