The case for Spatial Human Rights

Lara Kinneir, Associate Professor, The London Interdisciplinary School

The right to space as a fundamental human right encompasses the right to adequate housing, public spaces, and a healthy environment. And yet London needs £4.9 billion a year between 2023-24 and 2027-28 to deliver the affordable homes it requires, one in 50 people were homeless in London in 2023, more than one in five households in London have no access to private or shared green space, just 20% of London is made up of publicly accessible parks even though 47% of the city’s land overall is classed as green space, and there are 9,400 premature deaths in the city a year from air pollution.

Our systems of delivering spaces that serve our human needs are falling short. Can we urgently address these figures and reimagine spaces which truly transform life through a new approach to creating, funding and governing their making and maintenance?

Through a series of projects and interdisciplinary diagrams that explore the interconnectedness of architectural, urban and human conditions, Lara Kinneir’s talk investigates a future form of spatial understanding, education and practice. The project and provocations she’ll share will include a range of spatial outcomes across multiple scales and stakeholders, from the analysis of London regeneration projects and award winning architectural buildings, to UN policy documents and position papers, community campaigns, and education models.

Her presentation will demonstrate the inherent interdisciplinary nature and need for mechanisms to create spaces that hold the power to transform people and planetary life, provoking ideas on how future education and practice can unlock this latent power, through the framework of Spatial Human Rights, the structures of life-long learning and the methods of interdisciplinary practice.

Lara Kinneir is a designer who trained in architecture and spatial design in Glasgow, Madrid and London, She has worked in academia, city regeneration, government policy, design studios, think tanks and global organisations that are focused on the bettering of people and planetary life.

Her portfolio includes the design and client management of major regeneration projects in London, leading a community education programme in Sao Paulo, master planning in Madrid, Moscow and Jersualem, directing an urban think tank, building timber framed homes across Europe and teaching interdisciplinary and intersectoral university programmes in a number of London universities. Her research focuses on creating new interdisciplinary evidence bases to demonstrate the impact that well designed spaces can have on social, economic, environmental, and cultural wellbeing.

She is an Associate Professor at the London Interdisciplinary School, founded in 2017. The School fosters new approaches to resolving complex and interconnected real-world problems and consults for a range of organisations from grassroots to governments, bringing design to places where it is lacking yet holds the potential to be transformational.

The London Interdisciplinary School website: www.lis.ac.uk

Twitter:@ lara_kinneir

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The talk is chaired by Lucy Bullivant Hon FRIBA, Trustee, Temple Bar Trust. It is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2024.

This event includes networking reception with the speaker and audience members following the talk.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Temple Bar, First Floor, Paternoster Lodge, London, United Kingdom