Gasholder © Sam, via Flickr
Futurecity, on behalf of Berkeley, has developed a Cultural Strategy to accompany the Oval and Kennington Development Area (OAKDA) Masterplan, incorporating the site of the former Kennington Gas Works.
Futurecity’s strategy positions the development area, with its proximity to Gasworks Gallery, as a distinctive cultural destination building on the cultural dynamism displayed in adjacent neighbourhoods such as Vauxhall, Brixton, South Bank and Waterloo.
It reimagines the Gas Works’ prohibitive ‘blast zone’ as a defining cultural principle that will generate positive impact through creative employment, training and related community engagement, extending the area’s history of providing energy – water then gas – to the surrounding area.
Finally, it promotes the work of artists and designers as integral to the area’s sensitive transition through residencies, temporary and permanent embedded artworks that animate the public realm and retain a sense of the site’s industrial heritage.