Croydon: The Future: Design Initiative and Public Exhibition

The Croydon the Future design initiative, organised jointly by The Architecture Foundation and the London Borough of Croydon, broke new ground in the dialogue between architecture and the public in Britain. The public exhibition, held in Autumn 1993 and set within an exhibition tent designed by Future Systems, showed the work of 15 established and emerging designers who were invited to come up with creative yet realistic ideas for Croydon’s notorious problem areas.

Exhibited Architects:

Michael Hopkins & Partners
Terry Farrell & Company
Ian Ritchie Associates
Mark Fisher & Andrew Holmes
Jeremy Dixon & Edward Jones
Tibbalds Colbourne
RIBA Croydon Region
Future Systems
Alan Brookes Associates
Richard Horden Associates
Richard Rogers Partnership
Birds Russum Porchmouth
Branson Coates
Imagination
Lighting Design Partnership

The exhibition attracted 40,000 people – one of the most successful shows on architecture ever held in Britain. The public were asked to comment on the schemes and a report was compiled which documents the views and comments of 800 people – a statistically impressive proportion of the total number of visitors. The public responded to and endorsed many of the radical and forward-looking proposals for Croydon.

Building on this interest, the Council took the bold step of commissioning some of the design teams to develop detailed feasibility studies for new projects in Croydon. The full Croydon: The Future Exhibition Report and public comments, with a foreword by Lord Richard Rogers was also published.