Village Stories

The client brief was to capitalise on the upcoming anniversary of the Greenwich Millennium project (GMV) to highlight the practice's expertise in delivering high quality housing and sustainable communities. The initial response to the client brief included; a community podcast recorded on-site, photography, a curated exhibition and media engagement.

Working collaboratively with the practice and the creative team the strategy was refined to increase the focus on capturing the resident stories within a short film. Throughout the storyboarding and filming process the focus was on highlighting the impact of good housing on wellbeing.

The exhibition launch event acted as a catalyst for convening urbanism and regeneration specialists from across London and was subsequently installed as the inaugural display in the new community centre at the heart of the Millennium Village masterplan.

The campaign won AJ Awards Communications Initiative of the year, recognised as a "transformative study in communicating the fundamental social purpose of architecture."

To enhance the scale of the campaign and the narratives underpinning media engagement, localised, qualitive research was commissioned to survey residents within the village and around 2000 individuals across London. The research investigated resident sentiments about what makes a good community: what are the things that bring them happiness? What are their favourite community assets? How can architecture contribute to quickly building a sense of community in newly built neighbourhoods?

The research was circulated internally at Jestico + Whiles and offered good leverage in interactions with journalists and freelance writers.

*Delivered by ING Media