Recover from the boredom with these strolling guides to London's boroughs
For many of us, our daily walk is one of the few things that is currently getting us through lockdown. During one of her forays into the early days of the pandemic, Stefi Orazi came up with the idea of a hiking guide to help people overcome the boredom of lockdown.
Orazi's background is based on the aesthetics of the built environment. Her studio of the same name has created print and exhibition graphics for cultural institutions such as the V&A and Design Museum, while the blog Modernist Estates, which she runs on the side, has a cult following on Instagram and has led her to various books on modernist architecture wrote .
"I've been interested in modernist architecture since I moved to the Barbican in the late 1990s when I first came to London," she tells CR. “In the early years of my studio, I spent quiet times illustrating modernist buildings like the Barbican and making limited edition prints and cards. I then started selling them through my Things You Can Buy online store. "
In many ways, Orazi's lockdown project appears to be the culmination of her creative interests to date. “When the lockdown began in 2020, I started walking around my neighborhood in Hampstead and Highgate, which are rich in modernist homes,” she says.
“I posted pictures of the buildings on Instagram and people asked me to share my routes. By this point my design work was pretty much dried up, and I wanted to keep the wheels going by hiring an illustrator, editor, etc. So I came up with the idea of making printed guides for my walks. "
The range of handy folded guidebooks, aptly titled Perambulations, includes a map, charming illustrations by Jay Cover, and informative text about the modernist buildings along each route, ranging from the influence of post-war developer Span Developments on Blackheath in southeast London to Patrick Hodgkinsons Brunswick Center in Bloomsbury.
“The guides are all in the same format: a title illustration, a map, some photos and a text with the route and the history of the buildings,” says Orazi. “I make a list of interesting houses in an area and then work out a good walking route. I go through it multiple times to make sure it feels really long. I also get friends to test them on the street. I then write the text, send it to the editor, let Jay know about the cover photo, and then put it together and send it to print. "
For the seventh time, Orazi is currently publishing new guides about every six weeks. The response so far has been extremely positive and the designer plans to keep developing them as long as they bring a little joy to the London forays.
"At the moment we can pretty much only walk. I think people appreciated having something to do with a purpose," she says. "They're not very expensive and therefore accessible to most people. I hope they strike a good balance between learning a little about the local architecture and taking a nice walk!"
All instructions in the Perambulations range are available at thingsyoucanbuy.co.uk. stefiorazi.co.uk