Urban Narratives: re-writing Brixton's estates Part 2 Project 2011 Grant Freeman University of Brighton | UK Urban Narratives: re-writing Brixton's estatesThe thesis focuses on Stockwell Park and Angell Town estates in Lambeth. It creates anew approach to tackling social challenges in the estates by inserting new spatial,architectural and social narratives that change the perception of estates and theirinhabitation.Urban MythThe estates have been driven apart by years of gang rivalry and are commonly knownas sites of deprivation and fear, stigmatised in the media as notorious breedinggrounds for anti-social behaviour. The project started with a tour of the estate by aresident social activist, Julie – druggie hot-spots, a street where a postman wasstabbed in the eye, and the garages where two girls were gang-raped - were herlandmark spaces. The memory of these events has affected the perception of thespaces significantly.Social NarrativesJulie's narrative of the estate could not be transformed through social activism alone.The estate has a single community centre in a disused garage. It is poorly funded,poorly maintained and poorly built. The project sets out to transform the estate byinserting new narratives that change the way spaces are perceived, experienced andused, using spatial, social, structural, and material interventions.A communications device was installed across the estates, through which locals leftmessages for one another and broadcast their desires. These sound-basedinterventions altered the perception of space, personalising the corridors, walkwaysand sites of crime with a new form of social engagement.Spatial NarrativesThe project weaves eight interventions into the estate fabric. Existing spatial andarchitectural typologies – the corridor, the garage, the courtyard - and the activities andprograms of the community centre are exploded, re-modeled, and dispersed acrossboth estates to create a network of community activity spaces - a courtyard becomes acare centre and a graffiti pit a chapel.Urban NarrativesThe interventions are woven together by a consistent public realm strategy creating acontinuous spatial sequence – a new urban narrative. Continuing the transformation ofexisting architectural elements, the asphalt, concrete and brick courtyard surfaces areadapted to make a coherent network of routes linking the interventions Grant Freeman Tutor(s)