/ by Aleksandrina Rizova

ALEKSA STUDIO ENTRY FOR RIBA OPEN COMPETITION 'FOREST GATE CO-LIVING'

Our vision for the communal space in the collective is inspired by the English ‘pleasure gardens’. These used to be great meeting places in the 18th century. We believe a garden can be a key communal typology in Forest Gate Co-living development. Gardens can exist on various levels (including rooftops) and also link with vertical living walls establishing great outdoor amenity spaces for the residents. These gardens can be designed as flexible spaces - allowing for gardening workshops, community cooking classes, outdoor performances and cinema to take place at various times in the day, month and year. Each resident can be given a set of planters for personal use (acting as mini-allotment) with choice of herbs, fruit and vegetables to grow. The produce can be also shared/ exchanged between the neighbours and perhaps sold to the public in the form of pop-up markets.