Lei Zhou
In early February 2025, I had an interesting experience at the Inclusive Growth Summit, which took place in a cinema and was organised by the London Borough of Waltham Forest, together with my colleague Dr Hanna Baumann.
Extreme economic and political turbulence following the COVID 19 pandemic has led to significant social unrest and challenges in city governance. Many social and public spaces have been deserted, leaving people in their own information bubbles and cocoons. To organize a summit offline, in a cinema was a unique and inclusive idea. It provided an opportunity to discuss real-world problems while also creating REEL surprises. The event fostered networking among public sector representatives, designers, architects, community organizations and industry professionals. Moving from the borough hall to Forest Cinema symbolized the spirit of inclusive economy in community engagement.
However, the organizers did not show any films or high-fidelity footage to help us envision the future London, nor did they provide a three-dimensional, panoramic design of Waltham Forest region. I had imagined we might be given 3D glasses, allowing us to virtually “parachute” into project sites of East London’s rapidly developing areas.
Three keynote speakers, Grace Williams (Leader of Waltham Forest Council), Dan Tomlinson (MP for Chipping Barnet), and Tom Copley (London’s Deputy Mayor for Housing), opened (opined) the summit by offering a fairly bleak assessment from a policy perspective: stagnant economy and chronic underinvestment in basic infrastructure (no investment in reservoirs in 30 years – water shortage, no major mega infrastructure building schemes for decades), housing crisis, inequality and the income gap have tarnished London’s image as a global economic hub and threaten livability for residents.
I followed the speakers’ statement by searching for information on the “housing crisis” and discovered that 183,000 residents of the capital are currently in temporary accommodation – a figure released by Grace Williams’ team in 2024. MP Dan Tomlinson echoed this observation by highlighting that 1 in 21 children is experiencing homelessness. He emphasized that “inclusive growth and housing investment are matters of urgency”. He also coined the term “Builderism” as a new approach to creating more and better housing, infrastructure and public services (the importance of GDP has been reiterated by policy makers).
IGP delegates to the Inclusive Growth Summit chaired two key panels which covered issues ranging from place-based investment, community engagement, wellbeing, public health, to opportunities for inclusive growth in the Leyton area of the borough.
During the panel I mentioned that the root of theater comes from the Greek word theatron, meaning “a place of seeing” and “as we are gathering here to witness inclusive economy building in a cinema or a theater, it’s important for us to envision a seeing-is-believing future.” ‘Builderism’ is crucial for creating a vibrant city with a shared and common future. However, the builders of an inclusive economy should be reminded that construction should not be for the sake of building alone.
To a great extent, connectivity is political and self-built common space is essential for an inclusive future.
During pandemics, we have witnessed cities around the world facing the same dilemma: “caged” human beings and “homeless”: Our homes become subject to “preventative surveillance” and over-medicalization and as a result, private spaces are transformed into “public spaces”. De-sharing those “public domains” in our households and re-sharing our public commitments through community engagement will generate more livable real public spaces.
Dr. Hanna Baumann’s panel noted the importance, but also the challenges, of planning for growth that benefits all residents. While Waltham Forest has made great strides in decreasing poverty in recent decades, planning and investment policies must ensure that those currently most marginalized are not pushed out but benefit in situ as the area undergoes improvements. She encouraged private sector developers to share their understanding of their responsibilities when it comes to generating public value and creating good jobs. Shazia Hussain, CEO of the London Legacy Development Corporation noted the importance of joining up the work of anchor institutions in East London like UCL with community initiatives and business to generate the skills that create green jobs and innovation that benefit residents.
Nicola Mathers, CEO of think tank Future of London, highlighted IGP’s thought leadership on inclusive growth, noting in particular work on the inclusive economy. Babu Bhattacheriee, Director of Communities & Neighborhoods at housing community organization Poplar HARCA, also noted the importance of IGP’s longitudinal studies on local prosperity in East London.
Similarly foregrounding that long-term impacts of development for local residents must be tracked. Professor Jon Reades of CASA reflected in his closing statement on the importance of thinking about local development in the long term: How can housing developments be sustainable both ecologically and socially and allow residents to remain in the borough as it attracts new investment?
Over 2023/24 the Bartlett supported the development of joint working structures and relationships between UCL and the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The project ‘The Bartlett x Waltham Forest Hub: Connecting Policy and Research for Impact’ or ‘The Impact Hub’, enabled UCL to test and learn from a range of approaches to support the integration of research, data and co-produced understanding of need with key council priority areas relating to the built environment.
In classic text Theory of the Avant-Garde (1974), Peter Burger discussed avant-garde movements in a way that that could also be applied to the future of “Builderism”, as witnessed at this Inclusive Growth Summit: “The neo-avant-garde institutionalizes the avant-garde as art and thus negates genuinely avant-garde intentions”.
To wrap up by resituating the Inclusive Growth Summit in its cinema venue: the future of London lies in the dematerialization of architecture and the materialization of a commoning life.
Lei Zhou, design anthropologist and journalist by training — lecturer and module lead at Institute for Global Prosperity (UCL); he uses design, calligraphy, creative writing, theatre project and anthropology to explore environmental issues.