What sort of city do we want London to be? How can we turn around some of the capital’s key problem areas — inequality, a lack of liveability, sustainability — and build on its fundamental advantages — its vibrancy, energy, culture and creativity?

That, in essence, is why NLA embarked on a journey with over 400 individuals and experts across
its community, honing their views and ideas into the New London Agenda — a blueprint for the city that it is hoped will form the bedrock of output from developers, architects, local authorities and anyone else who is part of shaping a better city.

This issue of NLQ presents a special feature on the Agenda, talking to many of its key instigators and shapers to see what inspires them about its content, and crucially how that can be carried forward. People like Graeme Craig, whose Places for London will do so much to put placemaking principles into action, as one of the city’s largest landowners and a real power-player in shifting perceptions. Expert Panel chairs have done a great deal to forge NLA thinking across all sectors — LCA’s Jonny Popper presents the case for planning as it seeks fresh impetus. And later this year we will unveil a new competition to seek the best ideas to reinforce that trajectory and ‘reimagine’ London.

Housing is a key component of any functioning city. We look at temporary solutions, while Claire Bennie, a stalwart in fighting for better conditions across the sector, considers how new ‘trees’ can be grown as the current one — the system — withers and is allowed to die. As we approach MIPIM and Opportunity London’s launch of a new investment prospectus, we talk to Jamestown boss Michael Phillips, whose firm’s own brand of mixed-use urban regeneration that has transformed areas of New York and Rotterdam would not look out of place in a revitalised central London. Jace Tyrrell spells out what the prospectus is all about, too.

Retrofit, another key component of London’s development in the coming decades, is part of Elliott Wood’s armoury from its Building Society base. The engineer is deemed ‘Top of their Game’ this time, expertly profiled by Louise Rodgers.

 Finally, we take a look at two key buildings with later living and care at their core — Mæ’s Stirling Prize winner, the John Morden Centre, and Coffey Architects’ Cobham Bowers. Both are taking care of their residents and the wider community, through high-quality architecture and sustainable development with wellbeing at their heart. In many ways, this is the New London Agenda, in action.

Enjoy the issue!

David Taylor
Editor