Industrial intensification: the new revolution?

18 October 2023

Earlier this year, we convened key stakeholders and policymakers for a roundtable discussion on the opportunities, challenges and best practice of industrial intensification – a topic We Made That has looked at with the Greater London Authority and many others. We’ve been proud to produce the Industrial Intensification and Co-Location Design and Delivery Guidance, and to have supported a number of pilot schemes in their development.

Understanding the key role industrial land plays in supporting local economies and communities, we sought to continue this conversation through a short film outlining why industrial intensification is important for our cities, what we’ve learned and how we think it should be approached.

“The radical rethinking of how we begin to apply this thinking to intensifying sites across London.”

Yip Siu, Senior Project Officer, Regeneration at Greater London Authority

“We’ve been engaged with how get more out of industrial areas for a long time… And what’s happening now in 2023 is that some of those schemes are finally coming to fruition. They’re actually here, and we can see them, rather than just talking about the theory of what it could be.”

Holly Lewis, Co-founding Partner at We Made That

With landmark industrial schemes coming to fruition, it is an exciting time to be talking about this. Alongside our Co-founding Partner, Holly Lewis, filmmaker Dion Barrett spoke to other experts who are working on some of London’s key industrial intensification projects, Yip Siu, Senior Project Officer, Regeneration at Greater London Authority and Caroline Harper, Deputy Managing Director, Place & Design at Be First.

Projects featured:

Barking Industria, supported by £1m from Round 2 of the Mayor of London's Good Growth Fund, with Be First Regeneration Limited
Charlton Workstack, supported by £700,000 from Round 3 of the Mayor of London's Good Growth Fund, with Greenwich Enterprise Board
Lockwood Way, supported by £600,000 from London Borough of Waltham Forest leading on from the wider Blackhorse Lane programme

“Industria is one of the first stacked, multi-storey industrial developments in the country. It sets the groundwork and the terms for our new economy.”

Caroline Harper, Deputy Managing Director, Place & Design at Be First

Film by Dion Barrett

Photos by Fred Howarth on behalf of Haworth Tompkins and Be First