– Matthew Blunderfield and Liza Fior

Power & Public Space is a podcast from Drawing Matter and the Architecture Foundation hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. You can find the full podcast series here. Or listen now:

The Dalston Eastern Curve garden began as a meanwhile scheme, but over the past decade has embedded itself at the centre of one of London’s most rapidly gentrifying neighbourhoods; over time the garden has become an act of resistance against commercially-driven development, reimagining the site instead as a communal oasis.

In this episode Liza Fior tells the story of how the curve garden – a project designed in collaboration between muf architecture / art and J&L Gibbons – evolved from a temporary scheme into significant and enduring public space. Fior has revisited the garden with students in recent years to analyse and draw the ways the garden is being used, and discusses how drawing has affected her understanding of the curve garden today, as well as how this landmark project could help inform more conventional briefs for public space.