Studley Commons (SC) illustrates a framework for an Urban Commons within a social housing context where its residents become the Commoners. Exploitation of “resources” is primarily for the benefit of residents and secondarily that of the wider, local community. SC’s programme will strive to improve Commoners’ lives by delivering services in the fields of health, social cohesion, skills/employment creation and access to platforms supporting collaborative work and play. This is delivered by activating existing vacant spaces and eventually, if deemed agreeable by Commoners, intervening on underutilised spaces, like its large interstitial greens, with temporary structures.
The key enabling innovation is the introduction of Studley Hyperlocal (SH); a commercial, retrofitted rooftop greenhouse horticultural operation on the roofscape of the Hyde Group-managed 16 blocks of the Studley Estate (SE) in Stockwell and the ceding of a proportion of SH’s equity to SC affording it a dependable “Social Dividend”, committed to developing its programme of activities and initiatives. As SH progressively occupies SE’s roofscapes, raising its financing from private investors, social impact funds and other funding mechanisms supporting innovations, SC develops its programme through continual