Peter Barber: 100 Mile City and Other Stories
The British architect presents his innovative housing projects and speculative urban designs.
November 8, 2021
Recorded on October 21, 2021.
Current Work is a lecture series featuring leading figures in the worlds of architecture, urbanism, design, and art.
Peter Barber is the founder and director of Peter Barber Architects, a studio reshaping London’s approach to social housing. His residential projects offer provocative, humane responses to today’s compounded urban housing crises.
In this video, Barber discusses projects including:
- McGrath Road, a 26-unit housing development in East London conceived by the firm as “a radical reworking of “back of pavement terraces” and “back to back” house types.”
- Holmes Road Studios, a residential and counseling facility for unhoused people in North London.
- 365 Cities, a series of speculative projects shared daily via Instagram, defined by Barber as “an attempt to design a city a day for a year.”
The lecture is followed by a conversation with Florian Idenburg, co-founding principal of Brooklyn-based SO-IL, and Sarah Watson, deputy director of the policy and research organization Citizens Housing and Planning Council. The discussion is moderated by League executive director Rosalie Genevro.
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