KinshipintheCitySeries

Urban loneliness and the built environment

Overview

Between 2018 and 2020 we held three design competitions inspired by our research into urban loneliness and the built environment. We challenged architecture students from ten universities across the UK and Australia to explore ideas for tackling loneliness in the city of the future, using research points from the FSF’s Kinship in the City report.

For each competition, the entrants gathered at the Make studio for a day of workshopping; they then had several weeks to refine their designs before returning to present them to a panel of judges. In 2020 we published a digital compendium showcasing all the entries from this series.

Competition series

For this competition, we assigned each team a theme with both positive and negative connotations, asking them to use it as the basis for a design proposal that combats isolation and promotes social cohesion in a large city like London. The judging panel included representatives from the FSF, Make Architects, Atelier Ten and BuroHappold.