Hello and welcome. Barnes2050 is a place-based futures project. Its focus is our future.
How can we make sure Barnes - the place and its people - is thriving and climate-ready by 2050?
Barnes2050 started with Hammersmith Bridge and has grown slowly, carefully. The journal now features housing, nature, the local economy, roads, lifestyle and, of course, the climate.
And always from the perspective of this peninsula in south west London.
You are reading the words of a pragmatic idealist. Conscious of the wider challenges of life in the 2020s, but also that Barnes is wealthy, beautiful and fortunate. That makes it a very poor place for excuses not to try to figure out a better way forward.
There are over 250 stories to help you conjure possible futures for Barnes
That could feel overwhelming.
Of course you could start anywhere. But if you are new, why not start with these five?
What is shaping Barnes?
Introducing the forces shaping Barnes by 2050
Possible futures leave clues in the present. Demographics, climate, housing, technology and the way we move are already changing Barnes.
This story introduces some of the trends worth watching and how they connect to the emerging Barnes2050 Manifesto.
What does a changing climate look like here?
Heatwaves killed 400 of the trees at Kew Gardens
Climate change can feel distant and abstract. At Kew, it is already visible in the landscape.
This story looks at what has happened in recent years and what it might tell us about the climate Barnes can expect, and its effects.
How does Barnes2050 spot what is changing?
This photo is a test. What do you see?
Not everything in this journal is a grand plan. Barnes2050 also notices the small stuff. A road crossing. A shop. Or a tree.
Sometimes one possible future is already visible. You just have to notice it.
What can an ordinary bus tell us about the future?
Does Barnes need a different sort of bus?
Barnes2050 uses these observations to muse on possible future ideas. It questions the conventional answer.
When it doesn’t have the answer, it says so.
What might we actually do?
New park on Castlenau - WIP Proposal
Ideas matter more when they become tangible. This proposal brings together evidence, need and opportunity to suggest a radical change to a landmark stretch of road in Barnes.
It also shows what WIP Proposal means. Not a finished answer. Something specific enough to examine, challenge and improve.
That is the short tour.
After that, please wander. You will find plenty of suggestions for further reading within and at the end of every story.
If you read something you disagree with, or think you can suggest an improvement, please let me know. A friendly welcome guaranteed.
2050 feels like a long way away.
It is not.
It is being built now.
Let’s not sit this one out.