Groundbreakers | Hidden architectures of change in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Our panel have been involved in the Groundbreakers project mapping the history of the Park site and will discuss how they have broken with the conventional, conservationist approach to heritage and place making vis a vis the built environment in favour of an archaeology of the present. This has been focussed around tracing the changing entanglements of the human and non-human elements which have shaped the landscape of the site in the past and present and their bearing on its future.

In terms of the future, we will be looking at some of the deepening spatial injustices consequent on the accelerated gentrification in east London triggered by 2012 Olympics (its unintended hard legacy), and the potential impact of the ongoing climate and public health emergencies on front line communities living in East London. Panellists: Juliet Davis (Cardiff University), Bob Gilbert (Livingmaps Network), Jim Clifford (University of Saskatchewan) and Clare Melhuish (UCL Urban Lab) Chair: Phil Cohen (Livingmaps Network).’