Abstract
Hackney Wick has long been regarded as an urban edgeland, marked by significant poverty since the 1860s, with distinctive topographic and socio- economic features. Yet in the early 2000s, it saw a rapid transformation into a creative space as artists began to occupy abandoned warehouses, building a live- work culture and quickly establishing itself as one of Europe’s most vibrant artistic communities. More recently, the development of the London Olympic infrastructure and government-led urban regeneration initiatives have accelerated gentrification and drive for social capital, whilst intensifying social exclusion and community marginalisation amongst disadvantaged communities. This paper integrates visual ethnography (graphic communication) and participatory methods (interviews) to unpack the transformation of place identity and reveal the social challenges driven by these changes. Finally, the paper reports on the community aspirations, offering insights for future design interventions and providing transferable knowledge applicable to other gentrifying urban contexts, particularly within London.
Keywords
Graphic Communication, Visual Culture Studies, Place Identity, Community Research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1932
Citation
Pan, A., McHugn, J., and Bian, J. (2026) From Edgeland to Gentrified-land: Graphic Communication as Intermediary for Negotiating Place Identity in Hackney Wick, London, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1932
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
From Edgeland to Gentrified-land: Graphic Communication as Intermediary for Negotiating Place Identity in Hackney Wick, London
Hackney Wick has long been regarded as an urban edgeland, marked by significant poverty since the 1860s, with distinctive topographic and socio- economic features. Yet in the early 2000s, it saw a rapid transformation into a creative space as artists began to occupy abandoned warehouses, building a live- work culture and quickly establishing itself as one of Europe’s most vibrant artistic communities. More recently, the development of the London Olympic infrastructure and government-led urban regeneration initiatives have accelerated gentrification and drive for social capital, whilst intensifying social exclusion and community marginalisation amongst disadvantaged communities. This paper integrates visual ethnography (graphic communication) and participatory methods (interviews) to unpack the transformation of place identity and reveal the social challenges driven by these changes. Finally, the paper reports on the community aspirations, offering insights for future design interventions and providing transferable knowledge applicable to other gentrifying urban contexts, particularly within London.