Research . Social Impact . Local Communities
NEWHAM’S QUEENS MARKET
A student-driven project where we, through self-directed group work, collaborative research, and project management in a group of six, worked on a live brief with the Newham Council of London. The brief was to conceptualise a future ‘15-minute neighbourhood’ for a given persona - the Abba family, a family of 7 residing in Newham. We were tasked with developing this idea from an eco-social and sustainable perspective.
Our research methods stretched across a broad spectrum from collective mapping, interviewing members of the local community and cross-examining secondary research to finding our own insights. Throughout our investigation, it was important for us to take a considerate approach; we did not want to assume roles of problem solvers. Instead, we were wanting to adopt a convivial approach wherein the community who commanded the space already took control.
Class Project (Collaborative Design - Sem 2), MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures, University of the Arts London
Collaborators: Meg Jones, Natalia Ramos Castro, Vassiliki Deij, Zihao Zhang (Kyle), Zitong Wang (Luna)
Mentors: Gabriel Wulff, Anna Schlimm
London, United Kingdom, 2022
Newham’s Queens Market
Our interpretation of this brief evolved throughout the research process. We visited Newham multiple times during the course of the project, and since the first visit were instantly drawn towards Queens Market. Located at one end of the Green Street, this market convenitently sat adjacent to the tube station - Upton Park. It sold a wide variety of household essentials and food produce alongside providing various other services. The space succinctly illustrated community dynamics. From our first conversations with vendors and shoppers at Queens Market, we started to see how the market was a space that provided for the local people economic, cultural, and social links. The Abba family mirrored those forming and benefiting from these crucial links. As a group we agreed that this would become a focal point for our project, and that we would base a 15-minute neighbourhood for the Abbas in the context of the Queens Market.
Our interpretation of this brief evolved throughout the research process. We visited Newham multiple times during the course of the project, and since the first visit were instantly drawn towards Queens Market. Located at one end of the Green Street, this market convenitently sat adjacent to the tube station - Upton Park. It sold a wide variety of household essentials and food produce alongside providing various other services. The space succinctly illustrated community dynamics. From our first conversations with vendors and shoppers at Queens Market, we started to see how the market was a space that provided for the local people economic, cultural, and social links. The Abba family mirrored those forming and benefiting from these crucial links. As a group we agreed that this would become a focal point for our project, and that we would base a 15-minute neighbourhood for the Abbas in the context of the Queens Market.
However, upon our subsequent visits to the Market we began to understand that things weren’t running as smoothly as they seemed to. We uncovered that the traders didn’t get along too well. There were issues on the Council front too. The traders and shopkeepers felt that their concerns were not being addressed promptly. The renovations that had been promised had not happened since a considerably long time. In addition to this, there also was a constant fear that the Market could be shut down by the Council in order to construct profit-earning commercial or residential properties. We could’t have helped with this future of the Queens Market, but we aimed to foster community decision making in order to make their present-day functioning smoother by providing more power and autonomy to the people of Queens Market, with the Abba family as a unit closely related to it.
The people of the market showed us how much value and knowledge the community already held. Suggestions, ideas and clear answers on how to positively transform the market were held in community based knowledge. And this was our biggest and probably most important finding.
Key findings we decided to move ahead with:
- Queens Market was integral to Newham
- We ought to let people live
- Community took priority
Taking inspiration from processes like participatory democracy adapted by a few indigenous movements, we tried to define, in a non-exhaustive way, how the community of Queens Market could
fulfil their needs through participation and
community-based decision making. Our proposal was a participatory political system that empowered them to collaborate in order to find new ways to regenerate the community environment, and solve issues through dignity, obligation, reciprocity,
stewardship and care. Whether it was conflict management, suggestions and desires,
practical needs or deeper issues, the market could be the place where the
community decided for itself and fulfilled its needs autonomously and effectively.
The main goal of this political system was to find new ways to renourish the community while cooperating with and involving the council of Newham.
The main goal of this political system was to find new ways to renourish the community while cooperating with and involving the council of Newham.
The Council and the Assembly of Queens Market
The Queens Market Council would have the main decision making role. It would be the organism that represented and defended the community’s needs and ideas. Made up of rotating members of the community (traders, vendors, neighbouring residents, Newham Council members), the Council would maintain constant accountability, democratize information, and develop everyone’s leadership.
The Queen’s Market Assembly would be the moment where people reunited to decide and design for themselves and the place they inhabited. It would take the Market from the exchange of goods to the exchange of issues, solutions and ideas. The Assembly would be open to the entire community, where different groups would be well represented, so as to let all needs be accurately voiced.
The Queens Market Council would have the main decision making role. It would be the organism that represented and defended the community’s needs and ideas. Made up of rotating members of the community (traders, vendors, neighbouring residents, Newham Council members), the Council would maintain constant accountability, democratize information, and develop everyone’s leadership.
The Queen’s Market Assembly would be the moment where people reunited to decide and design for themselves and the place they inhabited. It would take the Market from the exchange of goods to the exchange of issues, solutions and ideas. The Assembly would be open to the entire community, where different groups would be well represented, so as to let all needs be accurately voiced.
^ This process, like the structure of this new participatory political system, was proposed to be a template for Queens Market, and not to act as
the only possible alternative to the current situation.
The Assembly had to take the shape of the community and, therefore, find its own way of functioning through research on the community, testing and iteration. Ours was a positive and “unfuturistic” future vision that wanted to protect and respect the Queens Market community without disrupting it and avoiding gentrification at all costs.
Illustration by Lorenzo Miola
︎ Happy to share the project document :)
︎︎
The Assembly had to take the shape of the community and, therefore, find its own way of functioning through research on the community, testing and iteration. Ours was a positive and “unfuturistic” future vision that wanted to protect and respect the Queens Market community without disrupting it and avoiding gentrification at all costs.
Illustration by Lorenzo Miola
︎ Happy to share the project document :)
︎︎
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