02

Opinion

The battle for a brave new world

Editorial by Isabel Allen

Essay

Goodbye to all that?

The coronavirus could galvanise us into a salutary rethink of the city’s priorities, argues urbanist Peter Bishop

Folio

How to pitch it

The most interesting ideas are often the most difficult to finance. Citizen held a round-table discussion at Minotti’s Fitzrovia showroom to explore the potential for entrepreneurial architects, and one former chef, to get investment for self-initiated projects that don’t fit into traditional funding models. An expert panel helped to hone a good idea into a credible investment pitch.

Folio

Purpose and Pleasure

A pleasure gardens that enriches the night-time economy with 24-hour opportunities to study, work and relax. Leaders: Yasir Azami and Andrew McEwan (Orms), Theo Games Petrohilos (Unknown Works). Students: Alisha Gould, Kiril Georgiev, Thomas Ka Ming Tse, George Johnson, Kurtis Gentry, Felix Chu

Folio

Generational Shift

Repurposing council-owned community buildings and disused spaces to provide improved facilities for young people. Leaders: Angie Jim Osman and Nick Keen (Allies and Morrison), Petra Marko (Solidspace / Marko & Placemakers). Students: Gannaty Rahman, Cora McLean, Matthew Knivett, Conor Moses, Callum Rowland, Calum Norman, Jack Banting.

Essay

Prosperity and growth: busting the myths

Daniela Cocco Beltrame unpicks the faulty logic behind the transformation of Buenos Aires’ most notorious shanty town and suggests a framework for a more progressive approach.

Opinion

The medium is the message

Fraser Morrison charts his quest to combine Instagram’s power and reach with a physical forum to share ideas for sustainable cities from around the world.

Folio

Parametric Penrose

Rising sea levels have led to frequent flooding in India’s coastal regions, causing loss of livelihoods and homes. This project, inspired by Penrose tiling and the rhombic triacontahedron, uses wood-plastic composite rhombus-shaped panels made from wood from local mangrove trees and readily available plastic waste. Structures are mass produced in local factories. The factories are built first, with the structure gradually expanding outwards to provide community housing as required.

Folio

Polimeria

Petroleum – and its derivatives – is a finite resource. Our society will struggle to adapt to a polymerless world. As the cost of producing plastic skyrockets, it will become profitable to filter, collect, refine and sell the plastic scattered around the globe. Thus, Polimeria is born, a nomadic community of scavengers that connect and refine the plastic floating in our oceans, carried by currents to so-called ‘plastic islands’.

Folio

Sustainability spotlight: Kingspan Insulation

Kingspan’s high-performance insulation reduces household emissions, delivering energy-efficiency and sustainability without compromising architectural vision

Essay

You wanted this

Lev Bratishenko, curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, plays out the beginnings of a self-inflicted global apocalypse in a United Nations basement hall

Interview

The poetics of space

Citizen’s Poet in Residence, LionHeart, talks to Isabel Allen about the connection between the built environment and mental health, shirking responsibility for climate change, and the power of the spoken word

Folio

One Last Call, Before You End It