/ Citymakers - City Knowledge, Knowledge City: London
When knowledge institutions take on the role of developer, how do we ensure this relationship remains beneficial for both institution and city?
In 2023 our annual Citymakers conference explored how new places and spaces for knowledge shape urban regeneration – and in particular how this is manifesting itself in three UK cities: London, Cambridge and Manchester.
The knowledge economy is a growing theme in many of our projects. The presence of a university anchors new urban development. Spaces for research and science now blur the boundaries with more traditional workplace. Innovation is the constant catchphrase.
Drawing on examples of our ongoing work and that of others, City Knowledge, Knowledge City explores how research and academic institutions continue to redefine their relationship to the city. It’s now 12 years since Central Saint Martins moved into our King’s Cross masterplan, close to a decade since we first started exploring White City with Imperial College, and almost one complete academic year that the London College of Fashion has been operating at East Bank in Stratford. While typologically these projects take different forms - from multi-disciplinary vertical labs, to standalone arts faculties with public gallerias, to a masterplan enlivened by a community of art students - what nearly all new university projects in London share is a desire for porosity, for new campuses and buildings to break down barriers between the activity within and the city beyond. It is no accident that several of our academic projects in London have emerged from and within commercial developments. A further blurring of boundaries. This trend suggests that universities, and the spin-offs and start-ups they attract, provide the footfall and the cachet that London’s developers and planners value. But what does it mean to a community when a large new University turns up on its doorstep, or when, as a significant landowner, a higher education institution has the power and influence to shape a piece of city to suit its own agenda?
Introducing the first session, Chair Jeremy Till reflected on the diverging views he had encountered when Central Saint Martin’s set up home at King’s Cross, from the developer who saw it as a huge attraction, to the local residents who initially viewed it as the 'castle on the hill’.
Ken Kinsella, Director of Capital Development within the Estates Division at the LSE, whose new Marshall Building hosted us for this first event in the series, described the active role LSE has been taking to consolidate its corner of London and define a space for itself in the city.
Real estate and development advisor Kate Wittels of HR&A considered the fast pace of technological change and innovation versus the slow burn of development, and outlined her work encouraging Rice University in the Houston to take the long and socially responsible view in its new role as a city builder.
Artur Carulla argued for a future where universities might act more like tenants occupying increasingly non-specialised or re-purposed buildings “somewhere between a warehouse and an office tower”, while Yolande Barnes explored the impact of economics on development and how a shift away from 20th century concepts such as the asset class is starting to impact the places and spaces occupied by higher education in London.
