Green Belt Atlas
Pioneering mapping of the Metropolitan Green Belt at the Royal College of Art.
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The Green Belt Atlas, produced by graduating students of ADS2 at the Royal College of Art School of Architecture, is the first qualitative mapping of the Metropolitan Green Belt (MGB)since it was established. It documents a space that defines not only London’s form and growth, but also how the city and its surroundings are perceived, used and imagined, a legislative space defined by what it prevents rather than what it contains.
As the MGB comes under increasing development pressure, it is vital that we understand its qualities as much as we understand its constraints. Although the MGB has been scrupulously researched in relation to rhetorical debates concerning growth and preservation, is has never been scrutinised as a territory in its own right. We know next to nothing about its economy, its spatial character, or its value(s). Few Londoners could tell you where it begins or ends. But the territory is not empty; indeed it frequently functions as a social twilight zone for opportunistic, illegal or off-grid activity, as well as being a home to essential city infrastructure. It is far from untouched or unspoilt.
ADS’s mappings of the mGB went on to inform design projects that challenged, critiqued and speculated upon its future.
Credits
- Dates: 2013
- Students: Amelia Hunter, Andy Matthews, Rowan Prady, Benjamin Turner, William Young
- Tutors: David Knight, Charles Holland, Finn Williams
- Collaborators: Jonathan Manns, The London Society
- Status: Completed
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