Family Rooms by the LSA
We’d like to commend the incredible work produced by students at the London School of Architecture as part of the LSA practice network, for our brief “Family Hub: Sculpting a brief from social policy”. Shortlisted as one of this year’s Design Think Tank (DTT) study topics, the brief engages a critique of the government’s emerging ‘Family Hubs’ policy, using Hackney as a pilot area and The Shoreditch Trust as a key client.
The project brings together six students studying for their Part 2 qualification, to create the template for social infrastructure supporting young families, through a series of physical ‘family rooms’ that together form a ‘village network’. To support this intervention at a city and neighbourhood level, they also developed a “Kit of Loose Parts”.
This is a manual which identifies process, site selection and how the spaces might be occupied to provide the main functional requirements, with a suggested suite of adaptable furniture pieces that are affordable and easy to build.
The manifesto champions this being initiated from the ground up, so that local, detailed knowledge guides funding and services to where there is acute need. The delivered concept is founded on extensive research into community, social and cultural organisations across various times and places.
Work by Finn Monaghan, Jamie Stuart, Jess Kendall, Michael Agostini, Monica White, Zoe Ingram