CIG: Legacy and Impact event, London Festival of Architecture 2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our special London Festival of Architecture (LFA) edition of the Cultural Interest Group last week. We had such a great morning with you all!

We heard from a range of local residents, artists, makers, creative practitioners, workspace providers, creative, cultural, and education institutions and businesses as well as those representatives of the development sector, all have been such an important part of our journey.

Hackney Wick and Fish Island (HWFI) has seen rapid regeneration over the last 13 years. Being one of the largest creative clusters in the UK, it is important that development protects the grassroots arts communities that already live and work here.

The CIG was set up to connect and inform local businesses, creative practitioners, institutions, and organisations living or working in the Hackney Wick & Fish Island and wider Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (HWFIQEOP) area. It provides a space for open, inclusive discussion to take place and allows serendipitous alliances and collaborations to grow. Enabling developers, Local Authorities and key commercial stakeholders to have a better understanding of the local community in which they serve.

The LFA’s theme this year is ‘In Common’ and since the very first meeting, one of the CIG’s core aims has been to bring a wide variety of people together from different sectors to get to know each other, find out what they have in common and discover how they can collaborate and work together.

We also asked 5 CIG members to share their experiences of the CIG over the years. Se what they had to say here.

Watch the full event here.

This special edition of the CIG was also conducted as part of a wider impact measurement project with the London Interdisciplinary School supported by the LLDC Neighbourhood Priorities Fund.

The agenda and speakers were:

Welcome & Introduction – William Chamberlain (Founder CIG)
London Interdisciplinary School Family tree – Lara Kinneir (LIS) and Robert Sollis (Europa)
The Loop – Michael Stewart (UCL East) and Paul Reynolds (CDT)
Hackney Wick FC Case Study – Bobby Kasanga (HWFC) and Cassie Leavers (Hey Big Man!)
British Council – Niamh Morgan and Genevieve Pace
Thamesmead – Adriana Marques
Wickside – Elizabeth Neilson (Pangea Sculptors Centre) and Rebecca Jak (Ash Sakula Architects)
The Crewing Company – Laura Davis
The Wick Hotel, 55-69 Rothbury Road – James Penfold (Infinite Partners)
Open House Weekend – Tash Nicholls (90 Main Yard)
The Wick Newspaper – Placemaking Award, presented by Editor Tom Kihl. Winners were Arbeit. Trophy created by Yasuko Arakawa
Closing words – Gill Wildman (Upstarter) and Sir William Atkinson. See Gills blog of the event.

With special thanks to Studio 9294, Hearth Bakery, Tim Newton, East London Tales and Yasuko Arakawa.