daab’s London Design Festival event creates meaningful dialogue on local issues

This year’s Battersea Design District returned to the London Design Festival as Wandsworth prepares to become The Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture in 2025. Thanks to local partners including the Royal College of Art, daab design, POoR Collective, World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens and Doddington and Rollo Community Roof Garden, the District offered a programme of exhibitions, workshops, community engagements, architectural tours and performances by creatives living and working in Battersea.

Our 18 September event Living with Industry: A community’s view on improving Silverthorne Road provided a platform of discussion to improve the quality of lives for many.

Battersea and industry go hand-in-hand forming an inseparable bond dating back centuries. But how do industrial and residential spaces really co-exist? Our event looked at how to improve the quality of our streets so residential communities and industry can live side by side for the benefit of all.

We were joined by Cllr Aydin Dikerdem, Cabinet Member for Housing and Battersea resident, for an afternoon of community design where we collected thoughts and ideas on how to improve issues that impact local residents regarding traffic calming, better defining our open spaces, creating much needed amenities, and more…

Thoughts and concerns raised ranged from continued concrete spills from local batch plants, acoustic nuisances/pollution from HGV traffic to widening the pavement and creating a dedicated cycle route. The work will be collated and presented to Wandsworth as a summary of a community’s view to a way forward.