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Reclaim Brixton

Part 2 Project 2020
Johannah Fening
Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK
How can architectural interventions, disrupt current gentrified models of development; to protect and empower Black migrants and diaspora, to prevent the erasure of Afro-Caribbean culture while using Brixton as a catalyst of social reform? ‘Reclaim Brixton’ is a project that responds to the negative effects of government planning of urban spaces, addressing gentrification, acculturation and assimilation of Black migrant communities, from an urban to a domestic scale. The project responds through architectural interventions, disrupting and reclaiming gentrified developments in Brixton and re-appropriating them for the marginalised Afro-Caribbean community.

Reclaim Brixton takes over 5 gentrified, residential and commercial schemes, boldly protesting against urban and cultural assimilation through positive discrimination. This is done by reappropriating the gentrified schemes with Afro-Caribbean cultural hubs to empower and prevent the erasure of Black communities and culture. Therefore, Reclaim Brixton is a form of architectural activism, advocating for change in urban developments. The strategic adaptation of developer-planned schemes and existing buildings proposes a replicable method of how councils could work together with developers and communities, to produce culturally sensitive places for migrant demographics, instead of one-sided top-down approach, which is often exclusive to minorities.



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2020
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