Brighton students host pop up workshop to visualise Garden City of the Future.

Letchworth’s historic shopping arcade will be a hive of activity this week as one its units is transformed into a ‘pop-up’ design workshop by students from M’Arch Studio Laboratory One led by tutors Professor Andre Viljoen and Alpa Depani. Over the course of three days, the public are invited to visit to help the students refine their ideas on how the Garden City might be developed in the future.

Earlier this year Studio Laboratory One visited Letchworth for initial discussions with the Heritage Foundation and the Garden City Institute. Based on these conversations and further research, the students have outlined a set of questions about future scenarios for Letchworth and will use the residency to further test and refine these questions.

David Ames, Head of Strategic Planning and Development at the Heritage Foundation commented: “We’re delighted to welcome these students back to Letchworth. This is the first time we’ve hosted a live workshop like this so it’s exciting for us and our partners involved with the Garden Cities Institute. A number of innovative ideas were discussed at our sessions early this year so it will be fascinating to see how these have developed.”

Over the next few days, the students will explore, among other things, the relationship between landscape and architecture and how local food systems may be reintroduced to enhance sustainability and resilience.
Professor of Architecture, Andre Viljoen, added: “Ebenezer Howard proposed the radical idea of Garden Cities to address pressing social needs. Now our students are trying to imagine how Letchworth, the first Garden City, may evolve and transform over the next hundred years. We hope as many people as possible can join to help imagine this future.”

The pop-up space at Number 9 the Arcade will be open to the public from 10am each day. The students will be available between 2-3pm and 6-7pm on both Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, students will present their work to guests and the public between 10.30am and 2pm.