黑洞社区

The campaign group Architects for Social Housing is planning to picket this month鈥檚 Stirling Prize in protest at the shortlisting of Neo Bankside, the luxury flats designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners.

It claims the 217 flats are aimed at rich non-resident buyers with price tags far out of the reach of ordinary Southwark residents. It also objects to the way the number of 鈥渁ffordable鈥� flats was negotiated and to the fact they were built off-site.

鈥淭his is a very high-profile award, with lots of press attending, so it鈥檚 a good chance for us to tell the truth about London鈥檚 housing crisis through focusing on an individual building,鈥� organiser Simon Elmer on Facebook.

He said he would be 鈥渂ellowing through a megaphone鈥� a litany of reasons the flats should never have been built, let alone nominated for a prize for making 鈥渢he greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year鈥�.

The list of objections includes developer Native Land鈥檚 viability assessments which he said reduced the proportion of 鈥渁ffordable鈥� homes to less than borough policies specify.

鈥淲e protest against the nomination of Neo Bankside for building multi-million-pound luxury apartments and penthouses for nom-domiciled tax exiles and foreign investors that will still be empty when 88,000 London children are homeless this winter,鈥� said Elmer.

He helps lead Architects for Social Housing (ASH) which was set up by architect Geraldine Dening earlier this year, partly in response to plans to demolish homes on George Finch鈥檚 Cotton Gardens estate in Lambeth.

The group is also planning a protest at Mipim London on October 21 and is looking for an architect to design a temporary pavilion which can be erected outside Olympia to house a street kitchen for the homeless.

鈥淲e call on all architects to begin working with London鈥檚 communities to help meet their housing needs, rather than accepting their current function as funeral directors of the working class,鈥� said Elmer.

He accused RSHP and the RIBA of 鈥渧iolating鈥� paragraph 5 of ARB鈥檚 code of conduct: 鈥淭o consider the wider impact of your work鈥�.

And he argued that architectural award ceremonies like the Stirling Prize give 鈥渃ultural legitimacy to the class war being waged through housing in Britain today鈥�.

鈥淲e protest against the nomination of Neo Bankside for spending 拢400 million on 217 luxury apartments when, based on the 拢177,000 for each of the 13 flats by N铆all McLaughlin Architects, they could have built 2,260 Peabody flats,鈥� he added, referring to the housing association flats in Whitechapel which are also on this year鈥檚 Stirling Prize shortlist.

Elmer appealed for sympathisers to join the protest outside the RIBA鈥檚 headquarters on Portland Place from 5pm so they can address as many guests as possible (鈥渢hey鈥檒l all be slurping champagne inside by 6pm鈥�).