F E AT U R E
Building an inclusive generation of designers
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1. An Accelerate workshop looking at the buildings and landscape of East London from Liverpool Street Station to Brick Lane. © Siraaj Mitha
The Accelerate programme was developed and established by Open City, and is a pioneering design, education and mentoring programme providing access to built-environment courses for a wide group of young people, increasing diversity in these fields. The programme is supported by the London branch of the Landscape Institute. Siraaj Mitha
Accelerate
The built environment affects us all; from how we form relationships and navigate our cities, to where we choose to spend our time and who we choose to spend it with. Our personal stories, journeys and memories are never without a physical backdrop to contextualise them. Surely, then, the decisions affecting the construction of our built environment should be made democratically, and should represent the population it serves?
Over the last ten years, Open City’s Accelerate programme has encouraged more than 350 young Londoners from underrepresented and historically marginalised backgrounds to experience, explore and gain access to built-environment professions, and has introduced more than 700 built industry professionals to mentoring and teaching opportunities. With an ever-evolving pedagogy, the programme strives to equip each student with the skills and confidence to make strong applications to study built environment subjects at leading universities and apprenticeship schemes. Students are exposed to a series of workshops in exciting locations across London, from the labyrinthine raised walkways of the Barbican Estate to the antique rooms of the Museum of the Home, and take
part in one-to-one mentoring sessions with built industry professionals where they gain a sense of the working life and environment of those operating in the industry. Each year culminates with a summer exhibition showcasing the work produced during the course. Accelerate was established by Open City, a charity which has dedicated the last 30 years to making London’s architecture and landscape more open, accessible and equitable to every community and resident of the city, and to this day continues to explore new and creative ways of doing this. Since its inception, UCL has been a longstanding partner of Accelerate, and has provided a platform for the programme to experiment, evolve and expand. The programme now operates with UAL in addition to 19
