Current affairs as urbanism?

Having examined the experience of the immigration system for arriving asylum-seekers and the social, cultural and spatial conditions of developing ethnic minority communities in Whitechapel, we overlaid the immigration system on the city and used it as a mechanism for urban change. The Urban Integration System links segregated communities and territories, and distributes services for arriving asylum-seekers as a secondary use of existing facilities in Whitechapel.

In line with the transfer of Tower Hamlets Council Housing to specialist housing associations, Collingwood Estate is refurbished as an alternative architectural typology – the Integration Centre. A two-tiered estate, the Integration Centre is a conversion of the existing estate to respond to the requirements of the immigrant communities that live there, and includes spaces and services for arriving asylum-seekers. The Integration Centre is a dispersed and integrated alternative to the Immigration Detention Centre.

The project offers the potential for collaboration between the disparate social, political and legal groups involved in the immigration process with Local Authorities and professionals involved in the design of the city, in a more sustained approach to immigration through urbanism.