Peckham’s Agora by Diane Ladiocan

Peckham’s Agora by Diane Ladiocan proposes a hybrid public building between the railways, combining housing, culture, landscape and shared urban space.

The project is useful because it takes a difficult urban condition and treats it as a place for density, public life and social overlap, rather than as leftover land.

What the project proposes

Diane graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a 2:1 and has taken part in the RIBA mentoring scheme, most recently with Pritchard Architects. Her final BA project, Peckham’s Agora, is a Revit-modelled hybrid building set between the railways of Peckham.

The scheme lifts a sculptural block of buildings from the ground and links them through a platform. The mix of landscape, public space, cultural facilities and housing is intended to create a dense but open urban fabric.

Why the urban idea works

• The railway setting gives the project a clear edge condition.
• The lifted platform creates a way to connect separated pieces of programme.
• Housing and culture sit together rather than becoming separate isolated uses.
• The public realm is treated as part of the architecture, not a leftover space.

Portfolio lesson

A project like this needs diagrams that explain movement, levels and programme quickly. If the reader understands why the building is lifted, how the public spaces connect and who uses each part, the project becomes much easier to remember.

Architecture Social view

Stephen’s recruiter view is that early-career candidates do not need to oversell themselves. A clear project, a clear role and a clean portfolio link usually do more work than a long biography.