Pointless City: Q&A with Ben Adams Architects

- written by Anya

Pointless City is a project initiated by Ben Adams Architects that explores the complexities of living in London today. While people continue to flock to the capital – between 2015 and 2025, the population of London is projected to grow by a whopping 12.7 percent –  for many, the city has become pointless.

You don’t need me to tell you that London is expensive. The shortage of housing means extortionate rents, not to mention house prices; an average salary is barely enough to cover the high cost of living, and increasing office rents are driving more and more small businesses out of the city. “Lengthy commutes and creaking infrastructure have become further symptoms of an urban condition that no longer appears sustainable.” 

But what’s the fun in being gloomy and passive? Pointless City instead takes an optimistic approach and seeks to explore the architectural possibilities that are emerging in response. The project is broken down into five avenues of research – Growing Pains, Off the Grid, Microhoods, Life Lessons and Cultural Cramps – and explores everything from the rise of “urban villages” to the evolution of London’s creative identity. 

Findings from the project can be found online and also in book format. The book launches on 21 February (as part of a panel discussion taking place in central London – more on that below) and presents an assortment of conversations with developers, architects, entrepreneurs and key thinkers currently working in London.

Below we grill Nicholas Jewell, the practice’s Head of Research, on the ins and outs of the project.

What is the aim of Pointless City?

The aim of Pointless City is to provoke and stimulate a wider debate about the future of London that brings together multiple parties in a way that individual projects don’t normally allow, creating a platform to discuss big ideas that could meaningfully impact on the future of our city.

Is Pointless City a response to your personal experience of London as well as your professional experience?

Inevitably there is a personal response to many of the aspects of Pointless City. Microhoods, for example, deals with how identity is created in specific areas and is inevitably related to the areas of London that different individuals have gravitated towards while living in London. Life Lessons explores the changing nature of the balance between life and work, again very much informed by the experience of how this balance is negotiated personally, while Cultural Cramps is very much concerned with what everyone actually gets up to in their non-working life.

How have you seen the experience of living in London change over time?

The experience for me has been about how I use the city and its relationship with where I live. Home ownership has progressively pushed me away from the centre of London and now means that I live in Brighton and work in London, a situation that is far from uncommon. London is now far bigger than its geographic boundaries due to the opportunities it offers and the centralisation of many activities, despite the high and rising costs associated with living and doing business there.

Architecturally, what are the biggest challenges currently facing London?

With its continued population growth, the key challenge for me is how London can densify to meet this need in a sustainable way that retains the distinctive qualities and structure of the city.

The project’s blurb refers to the architectural opportunities that are emerging as a response to London’s current state. Can you expand on these opportunities?

We were frustrated by some of the more gloomy discussions concerning London’s current growth, not because they don’t have a place, but more because many had become rather nihilistic and offered few solutions to the problems they exposed. As architects, it is our job to think creatively about problems and suggest solutions that go beyond people’s expectations. So in terms of thinking about new models of density to deliver new housing stock more quickly, addressing the imbalance between demand and supply; or new combinations of building programme that can deliver a vibrant 24 hour city in areas that have become overly focused on a single activity; we feel that we can apply creativity to turning perceived problems into opportunities.

The project is broken down into five themes. How did you identify these topics as key focuses?

We were keen to capture, as much as possible, the gambit of life for London and its buildings both within the architectural process and beyond, in terms of the life of its users. We started by looking at how the city could meaningfully grow, then exploring how the properties of a neighbourhood have changed, moving onto how identity is forged in London’s villages, looking then at how work and life are distributed in and around London, and finally what the activities are that truly create the culture of London as a city.

The Pointless City book features a collection of conversations with leading developers, architects, entrepreneurs and key thinkers working in London. Were you surprised by any of their reflections?

Very much so. The name Pointless City, in fact, came from a developer that we work with who was reflecting on London’s increasing battles with affordability and whether, as a result, the city would at some point render itself pointless. With most of the people, we talked to there was always a sense that there was a bigger conversation to be had, outside of the constraints that their particular discipline might have. A big part of this project is about taking the constraints off of the table and providing a forum that allows us to be surprised by big ideas that aren’t confined to a single disciplinary approach.

A panel discussion examining the points raised in Pointless City will take place at 7A Howick Place at 18:30 on 21 February. The event is free and all attendees will receive a copy of the book. Snap up your tickets here.