Myself and my good friend Joseph Popper are going to be initiating the first part of our project on 'Design Philanthropy' in Vauxhall. We're looking at the ideaology behind the developments in around Vauxhall Station, particularly the 'Linear Skyway' - a 300 meter bridge that will connect the new residential buildings in the new US Embassy 'quarter' with Vauxhall Station. The designs of this walkway point to a methodology of separating users (i.e the residents of the new developments) from the rest of Vauxhall.
It provides them with their own secluded red-carpet-route to the station, from whence they can head off to jobs in the City or Westminster. It seems that the development will not integrate with the city, so much as overlay the developer's idea of a rubber-stamped Utopia.
We'll upload some images and footage of our activities as and when they come to fruition and hopefully it'll provide some new spaces for thought. Essentially, we aim to use props to try and analogise the ideology of the walkway. Hopefully this will encourage some interaction from residents and help them question the fundamentals of the developments. If it doesn't then that itself says something about the regard in which the changes are held. We looked to this for inspiration: