Samovar Space

A new public space in the London Borough of Brent designed by young people for young people

Samovar Space, the first of the four public spaces conceived and designed by young people involved in the LSE Apprenticeship Programme in City Design, was officially opened on Saturday 22 October. The scheme, located at the top of world-famous Olympic Way, transforms a small site previously used for car parking. Delivered in partnership with and funded by Quintain, the developer behind Wembley Park, the space is expressly designed by and for young people in recognition of the value of their role in inclusive urban design.

The project is the result of 26 months of collaboration with the five apprentices aged 16-24, who undertook a learning and working experience at LSE. As part of this, they were trained to apply methodologies and tools – including social science-based ethnographic survey and mapping – to understand the potential and imagine the future of new public spaces in the Wembley Park.

The apprentices’ overarching intention was to create a place for young people to ‘just be’, a place to ‘hang out’ without needing to spend any money. They identified three themes, providing a design intention without creating strict definitions or rules for the project:
• COLLABORATE: a place to see and be seen
• CALM: a place to chill out and do nothing
• CONSUME: a place to snack and chat

It is a sad fact that young people’s needs are often overlooked when it comes to the built environment. With Samovar Space, we wanted to give this demographic a place to hang out and so we set the LSE apprentices the task of designing something they felt was fitting.
－ Julian Tollast, Head of Masterplanning and Design at Quintain

Read the full article on LSE

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