I have a Love/Hate relationship going on with London. Whilst the Capital’s lifeblood flows through my veins there are times when I just need to break out of the claustrophobic confines of the city and find a bit of greenery in which I can pause momentarily and breathe.

Finding a little oasis of peace in London is one of life’s little pleasures and something which is to become easier to do thanks to the new Mapping Forgotten Spaces website which is a joint collaboration between the Space Makers Agency and RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects).

The site aims to encourage comment, suggestions and debate about how London’s forgotten/abandoned/neglected spaces could be better used in future.

The Mapping Forgotten Spaces site was originally created to accompany RIBA London’s Forgotten Spaces design competition. You can still visit the Forgotten Spaces site to download an entry form for the competition.

The Space Makers Agency is about rethinking the spaces in which we spend our time and works with all kinds of people and organisations to create sociable spaces and sustainable local economies. I’ve never really heard of their work until now but the more time I spend on their website, the more I fall in love with London all over again.

It’s interestng for me – someone who was born in London and has slowly migrated out to the Zone 6 Surrey suburbs, to look at the changing ways in which people are using space and develop new ways of thinking about the spaces in which we live, work and play.

How the website works:

The website encourages visitors to browse other people’s ‘forgotten spaces’ and comment on them, as well as adding their own spaces to the map.

To explore spaces which have already been added, you can use the Home page. Zoom in to the area you’re interested in and click on a marker to reveal a space. Click on the title of the space to view photographs and further information, and to join the discussion about what should happen to it. You can also view a list of all spaces that have been submitted.

To add a space, start from the find your space page. Type in an address or placename close to the location. If there are spaces nearby, they will be displayed on a map. You can click through to view these. If someone has already added a space you’re interested in, you can add comments and upload your own photographs to that space’s page. If your space is not listed, or there is no map, you can create a new page for your space.

For general discussions about the competition and forgotten spaces in general, you can also start a conversation.

OK, so the site isn’t the slickest looking of platforms, but then again – it doesn’t need to be. Google Map mashups were born for these kind of projects, and I really hope that people log on and take advantage of such a brilliant resource.

In a time when we’re all obsessing about virtual spaces it’s nice open one’s eyes to explore the real space around us which has the potential to restore calmness to our mad, manic Metropolis.