A Landmark of Community Activism and Social Progress

Urbanism is considered to be the foundation of city design and social behaviour. Upon analysis of this underlying structure, one of the most significant elements of urbanism identified is land. The value of land is substantial to shaping a city and has proven to hold mass financial benefit due to its finite nature.

The issue at hand is where wealthy individuals and corporations have capitalised on land’s value, utilising it to their advantage for heedless profit and personal gain, often leaving spaces that provide minimal social benefit. Stokes Croft is no exception, where it has seen itself at risk of gentrification. In collaboration with various local community organisations, the aim of this project is to utilise Land as a Secret Weapon through creating an architectural response that provides value to the people over selfish financial profit. Upon investigation of my site, it was identified that the value of such land was not being utilised sufficiently, where despite being under the same overall structure with shared ownership of the back garden, the divide between both properties felt harsh and optimal land value was not being achieved. The UK is also at the face of a drugs crisis, with a steady increase of drugs related deaths over the past decade. Bristol is no exception; between 2018 and 2020 Bristol has faced 147 drug poisoning deaths, a record high up 40% from 2001.

Residents of my site are said to have faced drug related issues on a regular basis with an area widely known as crack alley located opposite my site, given its identity for the large amount of drug related activities that takes place. In response to the concerns addressed, my overall intent is to utilise land as a secret weapon to our advantage, serving transparency and symbolism to the drugs crisis architecturally through providing publicity to the issue, de-stigmatising any surrounding misconceptions whilst, simultaneously, providing rehabilitation and education to those in need of support. My culminating design proposal is the expansion of Only Green, merging the two properties into one larger space. This design will consist of a public facing winter, garden CBD cafe with the exposed growth of cannabis, being provocative to the stigmatisation of the plant whilst obtaining profit from the rapidly expanding market. The space doubles as a rehabilitation centre for addicts, with the provision of a drug consumption room and support space below.

To summarise, Only Green is a landmark of community activism and social progress. While its footprint is limited and it wont provide cannabis and rehabilitation on a national scale, it sits as a monument of a potential wider network of drug rehabilitation facilities, driven through community activism.