The "Better Archway Forum" is a community association founded by residents with an interest in the proposed development of Archway in North London. At the beginning of the year the BAF sponsored a design competition, open to all, to encourage alternative ideas for how the area could change for the benefit of local interests.
Dan Crompton, founder member of Ideaz Inc, lives nearby, and passed a poster taped to a tree. Ideaz inc was founded to encourage free thinking and the creative use of ideas, so this competition seemed an opportunity to put this into practice, as well as contribute to the debate over the future of his and his children's immediate environment.
Over the next month he surveyed the area extensively, photographed it from every angle, talked to locals and friends who know how the area works and devised a concept of how the development could progress. The resulting 4 pages of images and text proposed a way of approaching the task that combined restraint, like the expense of demolition, with opportunity, such as enabling the growth of new high tec businesses through encouraging local talent, youthful energy and Archway's geographical and historical role as a communications/transport hub.
On 21 May 2006 BAF announced the winners, and Dan's entry had won 2nd place. Ideaz inc offers congratulations, and presents here an online version of the entry: