ADS11: Already There

At a time when anxieties about material resources are common, ADS11 are especially concerned with the quality and quantity of what is being demolished. Instead of speculating on the future, we engage with on-going transformations in London, demonstrating the changes in our ways of building – and deconstructing – that are now possible.

This year ADS11 looks to reveal embedded value within the Aylesbury Estate, currently on the brink of demolition. Areas of research range from investigations of the ground floor within a modernist context, to the subtlety of play in the city. Projects looked to bring care and maintenance frontstage, to empower residents within the design process, treating architecture as a living organism. Alternative relationships to Central London were explored through propositions of hyper-density, and the possibility of new programmes – what is the impact of a new cultural institution in London? At what scale can it operate? Material reuse and its facilitation played a role in each project, either at its forefront or within its undercurrents.

These projects reveal the limitations of seemingly innocuous regeneration programmes. If we work imaginatively within an existing fabric, design can be freed from convention to provide enchanting pieces of city.

Renaud Haerlingen, Victor Meesters (Rotor) with Livia Wang