Infrastructure for the 21st Century

Dr Ben Campkin features in this Royal Academy of Arts debate on new types of infrastructure that will ensure London remains a well-functioning city into the 21st century.

Looking beyond traditional notions of infrastructure, speakers put forward a range of propositions for ensuring London maintains its status as a global city over the next few decades.

London is currently focused on a number of major infrastructure projects, from Crossrail and the Northern Line extension to the Thames Tideway 'super sewer'. With discussions moving ahead regarding HS2 and airport expansion in the south east, the emphasis on such major projects looks set to continue over the next few decades.

But while ambitious in scale, these types of large-scale projects are rooted in a concept of infrastructure that has remained largely unchanged since the 20th century - arguably since the 19th century. All are government-initiated, centralised projects, exclusively focused on the physical movement of people, goods or waste.

As the city develops over the next few decades, London's economic, social and cultural infrastructure will become ever more important: from sustainable food chains and decentralised energy-distribution storage to social care provision, childcare and flexible working spaces.

Other speakers include Usman Haque (Founding partner, Umbrellium); Clare Herrick (Reader in Human Geography, King's College London); Timothy Lang (Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy); Lee Mallett (Director, Urbik, former editor, Building Design and Estates Times); Carl Turner (Founding Director, Carl Turner Architects); Hannah Corbett (Chief Executive, Acme).

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Image credit: Paul Daniels / Alamy