Guy Rochez

The Season of Mayfair is reimagined 200 years on. As the sharing economy explodes, the relationship between property owners and occupiers is shifted in Mayfair as a response to the UK housing crisis, empty central London and Grosvenor’s long-term stewardship over their historic portfolio.

The introduction of an Empty Homes Tax sees properties that sit empty for great portions of the year become the backbone of Mayfair New Town’s facilities. Towers and walkways pierce existing building fabric, accessing basement swimming pools, home cinemas, kitchens, sitting rooms and dinning rooms. New copper-pressed rooftop bedrooms, siting as belvederes across the Mayfair roofscape, generate further revenue. Meanwhile, an alternative tax avoidance strategy brings a new stream of funding for affordable housing on six key development sites. Combined with pieces of New Town infrastructure, from high schools to car parks, along with traditional pieces of Mayfair programme, such as hedge-funds and auction houses, an architectural mash-up creates six new landmarks across Mayfair.

These strategies create shifting patterns of occupancy across Mayfair by different inhabitants, from the well-healed global super-rich to the more permanent residents of the new affordable housing schemes. The Season of Mayfair is revived.