Llywelyn James

30,000 2020 stands on an existing undeveloped toxic site with limited access to the west of Thamesmead. The proposal becomes a key urban connection between Thamesmead (an area that has been both reviled and celebrated, now actively being taken apart), the city and the extensive motorway network, with future provision for a new Thames bridge crossing which has been discussed for many years. The benefits of the new rail link at Abbey Wood will further enhance the connectivity of this area.

In recent years London policy makers have continuously missed their housing targets year on year, and it is anticipated that there will be a shortfall of 559,000 homes by 2020. New homes are being developed; however, production is primarily focused on luxury homes developed for the wealthy, and ‘affordable’ housing has ended up lost in the urban fabric on pieces of partial land that are scattered across the city.

30,000 2020 intends to address London’s housing crisis in a politically ambitious but architecturally holistic way. The project is looking to build at high-volume and investigates how the abstract language of architecture can become a device to structure this. Using this approach it tries to re-examine the idea of central planning, and the consideration of built structures as singular projects, a conception which has been mostly absent for at least 30 years.

By looking again at how advancements in construction methods and materials in the early 20th century enabled the construction of experimental housing for the masses, I intend to challenge the orthodoxy of the production of dwellings. This is an experiment that is trying to address the problem head-on with a singular vision, and to take in the increasing population in London in such a way that can accommodate different forms of life in the 21st century.

Drawing upon ideas regarding post-war new city construction, the subdivision of land and its influence on the cultivation of communities, the projects asks: What are the possibilities for creating a dwelling system that has high replicability and a systematic approach, but can break away from bland repetition in order to adapt to ever more diverse living patterns?