AA Housing and Urbanism London Lea Valley Design Workshop - Group 1

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY : BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY : BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

Course title Design Workshop on Housing and the City Supervisor Hugo Hinsley and Elad Eisenstein Design group Anne Hanrahan Carlos Nunez Davila Hemalatha Mallabadi Channabasappa Kanaka Thakker Konstantin Seufert Lea Olsson Mabel Zertuche Melissa Abou Karam Ruozhu Tang Yukyeong Je Produced in 2012 by Housing and Urbanism, Architectural Association School of Architecture Printed in London

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY : BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

This book is the product of ten students from Housing and Urbanism, AA School of Architecture on a workshop on the ongoing transformation of the Lower Lea Valley. The book is a result of the comprehensive material produced during the workshop.

The following is a brief summary of what the work attempts to achieve.

SUMMARY: Transforming the Lower Lea Valley: Beyond the large-plan First of all we ask the questions: What is the aim of a large plan and who develops the extensive area of the LLV? The work starts by examining how the LLV is presently planned. Several master plans have been put forward for the area, with the Olympic Park as a prime example. The large plan can be an advantage when dealing with complex situations but it also confronts us with a set of problems. Vacant players and the self-interest of private investors. Waterfronts and shopping streets become ‘managed’ the 2012 Olympic Games. The work studies to what extent local identities are being preserved and inhabitants and future knowledge-workers.

Also discussed on a large scale are different issues related to the complex effects of globalization on the economy and society as London evolves from an industrial society to a service and knowledge-based one. Many of these issues, from the role LLV plays in London in relation to other competitive global cities to the emergence of new retail players in urban development, combined with the problematic social parameters of the area (i.e. lower education and unemployment) raise the need to address the socioeconomic deprivation in LLV. The book raises the discussion on how to re-invest in knowledge – taking form as both investments that go beyond conventional educational institutions as well as new ways of clustering environments of different uses, work activities, leisure and individual living. such as the porosity of edge conditions, interfaces, voids and points of intensity. Here the role of the topographical character of LLV is of particular importance – how LLV possesses not only a landscape with a conventional scenic attraction but also how it has a unique morphology that consists of industrial roughness and large infrastructural lines. It is a complex landscape that mediates between city and nature. Related to this valley landscape and its infrastructural lines the work proposes its main idea - the concept of Strips.

Strips offer a series of interventions using existing – and introducing new - points of intensities, often forming themselves around existing transport infrastructure thus highlighting its spatial potential. suggests how topography can be used as a tool in re-generating LLV and how a range of issues would various strategic points in LLV. The friction of scales and program provides for a quality of adaptable built space including innovative live/work typologies in addition to new places of knowledge exchange.

The proposal then restates the main objective: the discussion of how to plan in LLV. The key in planning ‘large’ is to use a mixture of tools that can be applied to and cover a range of multiple scales. For lysts of change in the close context, could never stand alone. The successful plan attempts to combine both the effectiveness of an extensive and controlled master plan along with input from private real-estate companies that can inject capital and additional inventiveness, all the while leaving room master plan, but rather a complementary plan that supports existing developments.

May 17th 2012

INTRODUCTION

EUROPE

LONDON

LOWER LEA VALLEY

MID-SCALE

SUGAR HOUSE LANE

INTRODUCTION MULTISCALARITY

The Lower Lea Valley (LLV) is situated in the East part of London, roughly six kilometres from The City. On the north and south side it is enclosed by the new 2012 Olympic Park and the thriving Docklands; and in-between, stretching both west and east, it is surrounded by struggling low income residential areas. With the Olympic Legacy-program and the promises of an integrated part of London as a Global City. However, the evolution of London provides a cautionary tale for urban areas such as LLV. After the industrial base of the city declined, the city’s economy became more service Where some post-industrial areas (like parts of the Docklands) managed Nowadays the area includes a mix of businesses – both creative and otherwise - along its waterways, but mainly disadvantaged communities.

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INTRODUCTION

To address this state of decline, this study deals with the LLV on a multi-scalar level in order to develop an appropriate response to the challenges that the area (and London) face. To transform LLV into a wellfunctioning link in its complex urban context, it will need to transform on multiple levels: from its improved connectivity on an European scale, to its re-positioning as an attractive neighborhood on the scale of the city of London; from the developing of its unique landscape on the and routes in the area of Sugar House Lane. We think it is only through examining all these scales that an appropriate intervention of new mixes, opportunities, creativity and productivity can be proposed in the LLV.

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

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EUROPE

COMPETING CITIES

Europe as a single, interconnected urban core Srouce: Theo Deutinger Architects

“With an urbanization rate of over 90% at its core, with an already existing network of infrastructure that provides easy access to its multiple centres, with its well-defined peripheries, Europe has the potential to re-establish itself as a single, interconnected urban core-city on a continental scale” (Christiaanse,2009: 16) 10

EUROPE

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COMPETING CITIES London

Paris

Berlin

Liverpool

Rotterdam

Hamburg

Praha

Amsterdam

Frankfurt

Barcelona

Rome

Muchen

Florence

Venice

Madrid

One current challenge for London is the aspect of increased international competition between cities. Import and export of goods, ideas, people and knowledge float across international borders and, along with notable changes in the economy, this implies that there is a strong urban competition on many scales. This power struggle is no longer just about attracting events such as sport competitions, fairs and conferences – but based on a broad range of urban matters like the presence of jobs and taxpayers. This means that also our planning and urbanism tools have to evolve according to this development of ever-growing communication means, known as globalization (Eisinger in Christiaanse, 2009).

Hence, London must continue to compete with cities like Frankfurt, Paris, Berlin, and Hamburg and must constantly re-position itself to maintain its place in the knowledge-based world economy. The challenge for London is to allow the LLV to become a valuable asset in this competitive network through the transformation of its areas of decline.

Skyline of European cities

Source: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-stock-image-detailed-vector-silhouettes-european-cities-image12028531

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LONDON This study looks into a post-industrial area of London that has become increasingly important because of the planning of the 2012 Olympic Park.

The vicinity of this development introduces a dominant event-led plan for the area. We take the position that this type of event-led planning shouldn’t solely define the future of one of London’s largest underdeveloped city parts – so we put forward alternative ways to plan in the LLV. We search for innovative ways of supporting creative and productive developments using new ways of integrating mobility infrastructure, experimenting with new mixed-used typologies of live/work, as well as rethinking alternative places of production.

OPPORTUNITIES INTERMEDIATE CITY

Roman London

Medieval period

17th century “A Zwischenstadt of a more network-like structure will no longer have one large functional centre, but numerous functionally and symbolically diversified centres which will mutually supplement each other and, when taken together, make up the essence of thecity” (Sieverts, 2003: 26)

18th Century

19th Century

20th Century

Growth of London

Source: Steven Tomilson, Design for London 2011

The LLV is not characterized as being entirely city or exclusively country.

It has the elements of an “Intermediate city”; an integration of city and countryside, a mix of nature and built-up space. What Sieverts argues is that the former patterns of ‘living in the country’ and ‘working in the city’ are changing at the same time as old city centres dissolve. This challenging urban-rural landscape forms a new type of city with increasingly fractured boundaries between urban fabric and open space. Exactly this “city-country continuum” is an interesting focus for design - and when rightly exploited, the in-between condition can become an attractive condition for the city.

For this reason, the intermediate position of LLV as edge condition, is considered to have good potential for productive development.

Urban Analogy by Cedric Price

Source: “Heterotopias and networked space of multiple dimensions” by Daniyal Farhani 2011

Cedric Price’s Egg diagram explores the evolution of the city showing single centralities evolving into a pace with multiple networks: “Cedric Prices’s hard-boiled egg, fried egg, and scrambled egg. Each style of egg describes a different pattern of relationships, a different organization of the city, a different distribution of control and power” (Shane, 71).

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OPPORTUNITIES INTERMEDIATE CITY

Lea River

Lea River

Cities without cities (left)

Source: “Cities Without Cities: An Interpretation of the Zwischenstadt” by Thomas Sieverts

Natural resources of LLV (middle) City and country continuum (right) Source: BOASE project

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OPPORTUNITIES INTERMEDIATE CITY

Lower Lea Valley in between Central London and Thames gateway developments

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LONDON

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OPPORTUNITIES THE INFRASTRUCTURE PARADOX

Cross rail projected stations and overground stations (left)

LLV

High-Speed Rail Lines and the new Thames Gateway project, the LLV has the potential to become well connected to the rest of London, the UK and international destinations. For instance, the London City Airport is only a few stops from LLV with the Docklands Light Railway. Yet, the spatial impact of the very same infrastructural lines that provide effective and fast connectivity on a global scale are dividing and disconnecting LLV on a smaller, neighbourhood scale. Freeways and railways slice up LLV and the challenge is to transform these barriers into opportunities, while still keeping the advantageous connections. Stratford High Street is an interesting example of this type of mobility infrastructure with areas of unexploited, vacant land along it. Our work in LLV has researched the potential of enclosing and adapting this line into the urban fabric of LLV. “Infrastructure has constituted a kind of passive parallelof landscape unrelated to its landscape “Infrastructure has constituted a kind passive parallel surroundings. However infrastructure could also be given important functions for the infrastructure could also be given unrelated to its However local context and helpsurroundings. to activate it” (Eisinger in Christiaanse, 2009)

important functions for the local context and help to activate it” (Eisinger in Christiaanse, 2009)

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STRATFORD HIGHT STREET A 11

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STRATFORD HIGHT STREET A 11

OPPORTUNITIES REDEFINING LANDSCAPE

Lower Lea Valley as a green corridor (left) Water systems of Lower Lea Valley (right)

Source: “After-sprawl : research for the contemporary city” by Emanuel Christ 2002

One of the main characteristics of the landscape of the Lower Lea Valley is defined by a network of waterways. This unusual feature is rare in modern cities. It has a great network across the Valley and should be applied in more inclusive ways to benefit its citizens.

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OPPORTUNITIES REDEFINING LANDSCAPE Mono-Culture

17.01.2011__1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV ARCHITECTURE-LANDSCAPE-INFRASTRUCTURE_7

he Safdie architect

17.01.2011__1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV ARCHITECTURE-LANDSCAPE-INFRASTRUCTURE_7

1967, Habitat ‘67 -Moshe Safdie architect Montreal, Canada 17.01.2011__1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV ARCHITECTURE-LANDSCAPE-INFRASTRUCTURE_7

Kenzo Tange and Kenji Ekuan. City for Pilgrims, Mina. Model, 1974 (top) Capadoccian landscape (bottom left) Diagram for Downsview Park by OMA, 2000 (bottom right)

-LLV STRUCTURE_12

Plan for Tokyo 1960, Kenzo Tange (top left) Le Corbusier´s Plan Obus for Algeirs, 1933 (top right) Housing along the south axis, Amsterdam. the Berlage Cahiers 3, 1995 (bottom left) Montreal´s Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie (bottom right)

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17.01.2011__1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV ARCHITECTURE-LANDSCAPE-INFRASTRUCTURE_12

LONDON

A third opportunity that we have distilled from our work in LLV is related to the notion of landscape. At the moment the site contains several landscape qualities, such as its intensive network of waterways. Landscape is usually referred to as green space – but landscape, as we understand it, can be all the visible features on a surface of land, both in the city as man-made tectonic structure and in nature in its pure state. We believe it is important to re-conceive the notion of landscape as being more than a green corridor containing blue waterways. This will be elaborated as part of our driver for developing the area (see page 46-47) TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

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London Fitzrovia

OPPORTUNITIES REDEFINING LANDSCAPE FITZROVIA

LOWER LEA VALLEY

London Fitzrovia

LLV

Urban fabric

Source: Steven Tomilson, Design for London 2011

The urban grain of the city of London is a fine grain organization while the periphery condition of the LLV presents a vast land littered with large structures fragmented by gaps in infrastructure and lack of links between areas.

LLV

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OPPORTUNITIES REDEFINING LANDSCAPE

Scale comparison between Lower Lea Valley, urban renewal projects (left) and grand city parks (right) Source: produced by group

When the Valley is compared to regenerated waterfront areas such as HafenCity or Borneo Sporenburg there is a clear contrast in scales. Compared to the LLV these areas are less than half of its size. In contrast, the scale of the urban park like Central Park in New York City, or the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco provides a better assessment.

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LONDON

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CHALLENGES

M

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W NE R

E TOW

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LONDON

LET

M HA

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NAME OF THE BOOK

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CHALLENGES DEPRIVATION

The Lower Lea Valley is situated in the middle of four of London’s most impoverished boroughs; Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlet and Waltham Forest; and it includes the neighbouring communities Bromley-by-Bow and West Ham. These areas have low resources and high poverty rates an East London condition which has existed for decades. The deprivation of LLV breeds lack of employment, poor education and social unrest, often leading to desperation and violence. As seen in the statistics (Mayor of London, Ward Atlas 2011), the levels of education are especially low in the four boroughs of the LLV, and also unemployment is a challenging issue.

This becomes a central focus in the regeneration of the LLV. Only poor quality public housing exists in the area today and as a replacement for this, private housing businesses and city officials have framed the urban space with recently built high-end residential and shopping complexes like around the Stratford station - to attract new residents. . The challenge here is to fuse the cultures of the higher income residents moving in with the less powerful inhabitants already living in this part of the city. This requires, as well as economic and social policies, new spatial forms that support urban diversity – and consequently seek to turn the presence of different residents into a competitive economic and social advantage.

TOWER HAMLETS: 34% NEWHAM: 33.6% LONDON: 23.7%

No qualifications percentage ages 16-74 in London, 2001 Source: Mayor of London website

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LONDON

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CHALLENGES DEPRIVATION

TOWER HAMLETS Bromley by bow: 0.94 East India and Landsbury: 0.96

Indices of deprivation 2001 Source: Census 2001

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LONDON

TOWER HAMLETS: 14% NEWHAM: 13.9% LONDON: 8.9%

Unemployment rate percentage in London, 2011 Source: Mayor of London website

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CHALLENGES THE ACTORS OF REDEVELOPMENT

LOWER LEA VALLEY

Strategic Planning Guidance

The Lea River Park (left)

Source: Design For London 2011 <http://www.designforlondon.gov.uk/what-we-do/all/lea-river-park/pic/2/#/null>

Opportunity area planning framework (middle)

Source: Greater London Authority and London Development Agency January 2007London Authority, May 2006

Olympic legacy Masterplan (right) Source: Steven Tomlinson, Design for London 2011

January 2007

The Lea River Park

“During the 20th Century, urban planning simply meant one thing: master plans. Master plans, where residences, commerce, infrastructure and “During the 20th Century, urban planning simply meant one thing: master plans. Master plans, recreational areas were separated and organized in rigid, geometric where residences, commerce, infrastructure and recreational areas were separated and organized structures […]structures However, this urban model generates more in rigid, geometric […] However, this urbanplanning planning model generates more problems than it solves” (SLA, 2011: 2) problems than it solves” (SLA, 2011: 2) Rather than strictly following the above described conventional master plan model, in an area of this size there is a need for a more inclusive, multi-scalar and evolving plan. A plan should be an adaptable design of spaces and structures to facilitate varied uses and different people, where interaction and exchange can take place in public spaces and architectural interventions. Crucial in the LLV is the need to link and interweave fragmented areas, both on a local and regional scale, by making use of the existing urban fabric and infrastructure, by dissolving borders and by introducing new routes and programs. This will contribute to a spatial network that will enable mixing and difference in social, economic and spatial activity, which in turn will generate and support new businesses, residences and allow places of productivity.

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LONDON

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CHALLENGES THE ACTORS OF REDEVELOPMENT

Masterplan by IKEA, Tesco and St. Andres (left) Source: Steven Tomlinson, Design for London 2011

Private developments (right)

“Business players and real-estate corporations […] collaborate very closely with local government in developing new cities and reconstructing

y_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV 2

“Business players and real-estate collaborate very closely local and government have to ask ourselves whocorporations it is that […] is developing the newwith cities what in developing new cities and reconstructing old ones, with only marginal influence from architecthe prevailing logic is in these processes”.

(Mimica in Christiaanse, 2009: tural offices. We really have to ask ourselves who it is that is developing the new cities and what 52)prevailing logic is in these processes”. (Mimica in Christiaanse, 2009: 52) the

With the onset of the Olympics, the Lower Lea valley has caught the attention of private developers making it a target of piecemeal parts of the development of the Lower Lea Valley is supervised by the London Olympic Park Legacy Development Corporation, the market driven pressure due to the Valley being a host to such a major event cannot be ignored. This fragmentation is enhanced by the multiple governing bodies involved in planning in the Valley: the surrounding Boroughs, the Legacy Development Corporation and the London Thames gateway Development reaches beyond the ‘island’ of Sugar House Lane and breaches the Valley and its surroundings.

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DRIVER A : LANDSCAPE DRIVER A : LANDSCAPE

DRIVER A : LANDSCAPE ”If architecture is to construct a relationship with nature today that goes beyond mimesis (green roofs, bimorphic form, and mounded profiles) we have to begin with an expanded sense of the space of landscape itself” Allen, 2011, p 285 “Recently there has been a convergence of this expanded idea of urban space and an increasingly diffuse notion of landscape […] If landscape has an affinity with contemporary experience, it is with the vast urban interior, the vertiginous space of the commercial mall, or the experience of freeway driving” (Allen, 2011, p 285)

Situated between the urban and the suburban, the complex landscape of the Lower Lea Valley is one of its most remarkable aspects. Its unique morphology consists of industrial roughness in combination with large infrastructure, man-made landform and natural relief. It is not simply a poetic and scenic attraction but bears a huge potential of redevelopment. The possibility to Lower Lea Valley has a tremendous potential and can turn LLV into a complementary link in the future of London.

Suburbanity, Roughness, Infrastructure, and Watercanals Source: google ariel view

Suburbanity, Roughness, Infrastructure, Watercanals The Lower Lea Valley as an assamblage of shaping elements 46 LONDON 44 LONDON

NAME OF THE BOOK

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DRIVER B : RE-INVESTING IN KNOWLEDGE

DRIVER B: RE-INVESTING IN KNOWLEDGE The Lower Lea Valley has a large share of deprived areas that lack important amenities like education and health care. We think knowledge can play an important role in the revival of local scale with opportunities to emancipate in society and enforce their social mobility through facilitating access to good education. But on a larger scale our proposal should also reach for more than that and try to truly integrate LLV in the knowledge economy network of this global city. Not only and economically-strong environment, but maybe even more interaction and as exemplary function.

“A knowledge economy is more than just the university; it means a network of innovative companies, groups, individuals and related activities” (Madanipour, 2011: 157) “Strengthening the connections between, or even co-location of, the university and industry becomes a policy objective in local economic development circles” (Madanipour, 2011: 160)

Source: http://hannah321.edublogs.org/ Srouce: http://yaleisp.org/2010/02/ak4f2i/

like good schools and libraries are scarcely located in LLV and the formal nature of these institutions can intimidate residents.

We think there is a need for knowledge to be deinstitutionalized, where informal creative skills are made easily available to play an important role healing the deprived areas of the LLV and beyond. We propose to re-invest in knowledge in a range of urban and architectural interventions and to go beyond the concept of conventional educational institutions.

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NAME OF THE BOOK

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LOWER LEA VALLEY

THE FRAMEWORK

Valley conditions

Edge conditions

Points of intensity

Through the spatial reading of the valley, a framework was set in order to create a base for analysis and implementation. The three main aspects of the LLV that directed the line of work were; the ‘Edge Conditions’, the ‘Valley’ condition, and the ‘Points of Intensity’. This spatial framework is used as the criterion for suitable interventions in the area.

Spatiality: valley, edge and points of intensity

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THE FRAMEWORK

Layered analysis of the valley: points of intensity valley conditions, and edge conditions

Points of intensity

Valley conditions

Edge conditions

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LOWER LEA VALLEY

Firstly, several types of edge conditions exist in the LLV. On a small scale, there are the fragmented neighbourhoods with diverse edge conditions, such as a waterway dividing two territories, a freeway or a railway cutting through. On a larger scale there are the edges that articulate the landscape: the borders of the valley where residential areas meet the post-industrial zones and open spaces, and where local borough conditions connect to the rest of the city fabric.

Secondly, there is the so-called inner valley – the area with industrial leftovers and an archipelago of different communities. This valley-condition, with its articulated landscape, its friction and its large scale structures, has great potential to be different; to be unique instead of copying generic city tissue. This is why we didn’t interpret the inner valley as a blank slate but rather as an opportunity to use many existing elements and landscape qualities, mixed with strategic interventions to create a new condition. By using its variety of structures, voids and territories - new laws and rules can be introduced and experimented with to intensify this unique territory.

Thirdly, we work with ‘points of intensity’. These points are defined as existing places of opportunity that can be intensified or infused with new programs to create interaction and activity. They deal with access points to mobility, the crossing of borders, directionality, concentration of people and activities at specific places. They can take the form of mobility hubs and transportation intersections, re-designed monumental structures and new built programs, newly activated public spaces and intensified border conditions.

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Hard edge conditions of the waterways (left) Source: produced by group A tough edge (right) Source: materials provided by tutors

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edge conditions: harsh (non-permeable) edges

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This photo demonstrates a range of harsh conditions that exist in the LLV, further fragmenting the different territories that make up the area.

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE WATER EDGE OF SUGAR HOUSE LANE AREA

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE CANAL EDGE CONDITION

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE CANAL EDGE CONDITION

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THE FRAMEWORK EDGE CONDITIONS

64 munities

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Diverse border conditions of the Lower Lea Valley (left and right) Source: produced by group and google ariel view

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These pictures represent the various border conditions at the edges of the Valley which must be addressed in the strategic plan in order to better the area.

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THE FRAMEWORK EDGE CONDITIONS

The thickened edges (left) and Interpretations of existing edges (right) Source: produced by group

These pictures show transitional zones between existing edges and the interpretation of newly built edges.The picture on the right emphasizes the small scale reading of existing and new structures.

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THE FRAMEWORK VALLEY CONDITIONS

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NAME OF THE BOOK

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THE FRAMEWORK VALLEY CONDITIONS

Wide open fields: rethinking the logic of the Lower Lea Valley (left and right) Source: produced by group

The diagrams show the presence of a vast amount of open space that exists without a set logic in the LLV. This creates a unique opportunity to test new forms throughout.

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THE FRAMEWORK VALLEY CONDITIONS

Intervention3

Big objects of the Lower Lea Valley (left) Gas holders and sheds (right)

THE LANDSCAPE OF BIGNESS The Lower Lea Valley is a site that encompasses large, existing historical elements. It is a fragmented landscape of Bigness in a wide open field that boasts very diverse spatial qualities with large post-industrial structures. As Kenneth Frampton points out, “most of us now live in some form of continuous urbanized region” (Frampton, 6). Referring to this notion, the theory of the landscape in the LLV goes beyond green parks and waterways but rather it is redefined as the continuity of landscape through large built form. Frampton saw potential in the Megaform to deal with landscape in an urban area to provide “form-giving potential of certain kinds of horizontal urban fabric capable of affecting some kind of topographic transformation in the megalopolitan landscape” (7). A suitable example of the Megaform in landscape resides in Le Corbusier’s Plan Obus where its “sweeping panorama led him to imagine a continuous urban form in which one could no longer discriminate between the building and the landscape.” (19) However, Frampton also outlined the dangers of the Plan Obus as it was “hardly a feasible proposal from either a productive or a cultural standpoint. It was totally removed” (19). That is why our proposal for the LLV interprets this Megaform in two ways, firstly as an intrinsic quality of the site that should be fostered, the Valley as a whole and its landscape of Bigness; and secondly as a method of intervention, not as one continuous building but as a series of interventions along new and existing routes in the landscape.

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE THE LANDSCAPE OF BIGNESS

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THE FRAMEWORK POINTS OF INTENSITY

Dalston

Stratford City

Hackney Wick

Stratford

Upton Park

Bethnal Green

Roman Road

West Ham Bromley

by Bow

Whitechapel Crisp Street

Canning Town

THE FRAMEWORK POINTS OF INTENSITY

Transport hubs for instance Startford (top), Bromley-by-bow (middle), and West Ham (bottom) Source: <http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/stratford_buildings.htm> and Google earth street view

As a point of exchange between different transport nodes, hubs are often the sole connection to the LLV and between the Valley, the city of London and beyond. Many activities take place at the various intersections of the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ferry slips, airports, railway stations and bus stops â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all of which have the potential to grow and become larger points of centrality and intensity. The various stations surrounding the Sugar House Lane provide different points and forms of access to the site.

The picture on the top left depicts Stratford station and its critical mass with its direct link through the Westfield shopping mall to the Olympic Games site and other nearby stations. Bromley by Boy is presented in the picture below it. It is a moderately busy station which has the ability to grow its critical mass as only two of its four platforms are currently in use. West Ham is used in the LLV as a connection point for the borough of Newham to the rest of the LLV, Sugar House Lane and the Olympic site. It boasts a direct connection to the Greenway path that goes the length of the Valley. Each of these stations is important to the site in its links to the greater area.

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THE FRAMEWORK POINTS OF INTENSITY

Intersection between A11, A12 and waterway Source: produced by group

Pictured above is the Stratford High Street junction where diverse mobility systems, differentiated by speeds and forms of transit, meet. The junction is large and acts out of scale for the area. It creates a large barrier right at the western corner of the Sugarhouse Lane and intimidates pedestrians who find it difficult to navigate.

Points of intensity and its connections 80

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

81

SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE INTERSECTION BETWEEN A11 AND A12

82

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

83

POINTS OF INTENSITY

84

LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

85

THE FRAMEWORK POINTS OF INTENSITY

Exisitng structures (left) the valley : not ’virgin land’ Fragments of Lower Lea Valley (middle) The monumentality of the existing structures (right)

86

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

87

THE FRAMEWORK POINTS OF INTENSITY Source: brmely-by-bow centre website

Community organisations Bromley-by-bow centre Community organisations such as the Bromley by Bow Centre recognise the immediate needs of deprived areas by providing locally accessible amenities in terms of education, jobs and health care. The organisation also tries to increase the cohesiveness amongst the different ethnic cultures that co-exist in this area and there is a potential to create a more ambitious form of access to education, creativity and vocational skills around these types of centres. Presented at the end of this document, the type of centrality that the Bromley by Bow Centre has engendered has been an important reference for the proposed spatial intervention. A forum for gaining and exchanging knowledge by providing fun, educational, and adaptable spaces for residents and outsiders alike.

88

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

89

THE FRAMEWORK POINTS OF INTENSITY

INTERSECTIONS

EXISTING FRAGMENTS

STATIONS

Points of intensity in the middle scale and surrounding influence

90

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

91

THE STRIPS

The strips: accumulation of the three components

THE STRIPS : A TOOL FOR INTERVENTION The before mentioned components (edge conditions, the inner valley and points of intensity) are accumulated along several Strips that cross-connect two sides of the valley. The Strips are all different but are mostly based on different types of mobility infrastructure; one a busy freeway, like the East India Dock Road or the Stratford Highstreet, another is the significant Greenway running diagonal across the valley, and again a different one is the Pudding Mill Railway Line.

These lines are interesting in two ways: on the one hand they are busy lines connecting two sides of the valley, providing effective and fast connectivity and linking existing communities; on the other hand the same infrastructural systems are challenging because they often only poorly connect to the LLV at the local scale. The spatial impact of these infrastructural lines is massive and they produce deteriorating and poor quality landscapes.

Thus, the Strips contain several unexploited voids and instead of supporting connectivity in the valley they rather slice it up.

We have laid emphasis on the Strips as structuring elements for the entire valley and will examine how negative space along these lines can be applied as a re-generative instrument, as elaborated on page 132-165.

92

LOWER LEA VALLEY

NAME OF THE BOOK

93

THE STRIPS

PUDING MILL RAILWAY LINELine Pudding Mill Railway

AA11 11STRATFORD Stratford HIGH HighSTREET Street

SUGAR LANE AREA SugarHOUSE House Lane Area

BROMLEY BY BOW RAILWAY LINE

Bromley By Bow Railway Line Sections through the existing strips

94

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

95

THE STRIPS

The strips : a tool for intervention

a tool for intervention

96

LOWER LEA VALLEY

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN

97

MID-SCALE TEST Working on a small scale in LLV we did several tests for the Sugar House Lane area, looking into edge conditions, the presence of the waterways, mobility infrastructure, built form and grid patterns to provide a base for further exploration and intervention in LLV. The following tests shall thus be seen as part of the analysis towards the final interventions.

SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE

100 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 101

STRAND EAST VISION FOR EAST LONDON TEST l IKEA’S

Hotels Services & Shops Communal Programme Leisure

C1 20000 Hotels m² A1-A5 Services 5000 & Shops m² D1 Communal 7000 m² Programme D2 2000 Leisure m²

C1 A1-A5 D1 D2

20000 m² 5000 m² 7000 m² 2000 m²

C1

C3

D1

C3

C3 C3

B1

B1

D1 C3

D2

Edge condition Residential C3 B1

101000 m²

C1

D1

C3 B1

A1 D1 -A5

Offices C1 A1 D1 -A5 Hotels Services & Shops Communal Programme Leisure

D2

C3

D1

C1

C3

B1 C1 A1-A5 D1 D2

D2

B1

120000 m² 46000 m² 20000 m² 5000 m² 7000 m² 2000 m²

101000 m²

C3

D1

C1

C3 C3 B1 D1

C3 B1

Residential Offices Hotels Services & Shops Communal Leisure

C3 B1 C1 A1-A5 D1 D2

120000 m² 46000 m² 20000 m² 5000 m² 7000 m² 2000 m²

D2

D2

B1

B1

Residential C3 120000 m² Offices B1 46000 m² C3 m² Hotels C1 D1 20000 Services C1 & Shops A1C1 D1A1-A5 5000 m² D2 C3 Communal-A5 D1 7000 m² Leisure D2C3 2000 m²

101000 m² C1

C3

D1 C3 C3

B1

B1

D1

D1

D2

Residential Offices Hotels Services & Shops Communal Leisure

C3 B1 C1 A1-A5 D1 D2

B1

120000 m² 46000 m² 20000 m² 5000 m² 7000 m² 2000 m²

C1

C3

D1 C3

Left Side Left Side Computer-generated image Computer-generated of the ‘StrandEast’ image development of the ‘StrandEast’ on Sugardevelopment House Island,on©Sugar 2012House Island, © 2012 Landprop Holding Landprop Holding C3

B1

D1

Programme Programme Programme Programme

Top Top Coloured Ground - Figure, Coloured Assumption Groundof- Figure, programme Assumption distribution of programme on the sitedistribution on the site Bottom Bottom Gross Floor Area comparison Gross Floor to land Area size. comparison to land size.

Left Side Computer-generated image of the ‘StrandEast’ development on Sugar House Island, © 2012 Landprop Holding

C3

Programme Coloured Ground - Figure, Assumption of programme distribution on the site Programme

C3

C3

C3 Top

Bottom B1 B1 B1 Gross Floor Area comparison to land size.

B1

101000 m² C1

C1 A1 D1 -A5

A1 D1

D2 -A5 C1

C3

C1 A1 D1 -A5 C3

D2

A1 D1

D2 -A5

101000 m²

101000 m²

101000 m²

D2

B1

B1

101000 m²

101000 m²

NAME OF THE BOOK NAME5 OF THE BOOK C1

C1 for the A1 D1 D2 IKEA’sA1vision D1 D2 -A5 Sugar house lane site (left) -A5 Assumed programme distribution (right)

102 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 103 D2 D2 D2

Residential

C3

Residential 120000 m²

C3

B1 120000 m²

D2

B1

B1

B1

5

Bottom Left Old Fabrif with listed buildings in green. The street system and the new fabric with preserved buidlingsTEST l IKEA’S VISION FOR EAST LONDON

OLD Ikeas Proposal

SUPERIMPOSITION Street system

NEW

Typology Typology OLD

SUPERIMPOSITION

ting

6

MID-SCALE : TEST

Theatre, Theatre, Community Community center, Theatre, Center, Community Casino Center,etc...

Casino etc...

High-rise High-rise Residential Residential Tower High-rise Tower Residential Tower

Residential Hybrid: ResidentialBlock Hybrid: Perimeter Perimeter Block + with inserted RowResidential Hybrid: Rowhouses (mew) houses.

Perimeter Block + Rowhouses (mew)

Hotel Hotel Hotel

Office Block Office Perimeter Block Office Perimeter Block

Office Building Office Building Office Building

STRANDEAST DEVELOPMENT Once owned and managed by the Olympic Park Legacy Company, IKEA’s development company ‘LandProp’ bought the Sugar House Lane site to realize their vision for a combined live and work environment in East London. Framed by water canals on both sides, this site is treated like an island where they attempt to include “intelligent design, creativity, sustainability and a real sense of community” into the plan (LandProp 2012, www.StrandEast.com).

The IKEA proposal is exemplary for a typical brown-field redevelopment and worth being studied as a real-estate solution. On the basis of the sparse information, which we could extract out of computer generated images, we tried to gain clarity of their approach. Further tests and examinations of the proposal and its context supported a deeper understanding of the urban condition on ‘Sugar House Lane Island’ and in its adjacent neighborhood. This analysis created a strong starting point for own design strategies.

New, old and the in large parts overtaken street system (top left) Superimposition of old and new fabric (bottom) IKEA’s typology for the Lower Lea Valley (top right) 104 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 105

TEST l IKEAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S VISION FOR EAST LONDON

n Porosity at the High Street and the main road as distributor (top left) Movement : West and East (top middle) Movement : North and South (top middle) Circulation and Movement within the residential (top right) Access to Sugarhouse Lane Island (bottom)

ACCESS AND CIRCULATION Intentionally planned to be restricted for private cars, the site is highly accessible for pedestrians. New Bridges to the adjacent regions increase inflow and connectivity to already established institutions, for example the Abbey Mills Studio, in the south. In large parts the logic of the existing street system is adopted and is further developed to allow unimpeded movement and circulation around the large parcels and along the main road axes. The concept provides large underground car parks and includes the redirection of public transport lines through the site.

Islandâ&#x20AC;&#x153;

106 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 107

TEST l IKEA’S VISION EAST LONDON IKEA’S STRAND EASTFOR DEVELOPMENT Public Space

IKEA’S STRAND EAST DEVELOPMENT „MEDIEVIL TOWN „MEDIEVIL CENTER“ TOWN CENTER“

STREET-CHURCH-STREET STREET-CHURCH-STREET

SETTING BACK AND TWISTING - GENERATING APPEALING SITUATIONS/SPACES SETTING BACK AND TWISTING - GENERATING APPEALING SITUATIONS/SPACES

SETTING BACK AND TWISTING - GENERATING APPEALING SITUATIONS/SPACES SETTING BACK AND TWISTING - GENERATING APPEALING SITUATIONS/SPACES

15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 27

IKEA proposal : podiums, set backs, twisting

15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 27

NOLLI PLAN

PLACES

15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 27

IKEA proposal : podiums, set backs, twisting

horizontal and vertical differentiation

15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 27

Typologies Medieval town centre and the pattern of street - church - street 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent „MEDIEVIL TOWN „MEDIEVIL CENTER“ TOWN CENTER“

ELEMENTS OF THE DESIGN, PUBLIC SPACE AND HIGHERCHY OF THEHIGHEST HEIGHTPOINTS setback, twisting, podium

DESIGN ELEMENTS The StrandEast plan conserves landmark buildings as functional artefacts on the site while it is introducing an interesting, but mostly conventional, typology. The plan keeps the existing industrial street system and tackles the problem of the deep plot sizes by subdividing through inserting mews with townhouses into a residential block. Through the use of a sophisticated design vocabulary they achieve an intriguingly articulated architecture.

These design strategies include setbacks and the twisting of volumes with which IKEA generates appealing spaces and a remarkable horizontal and vertical differentiation.

In a positive way, the Ikea plan conserves landmark buildings as functional artefacts on the site.

They interpreted the site by introducing new typologies dealing with street edges and water’s edge. The plan keeps the existing industrial street system and tackles the problem of the deep plot sizes by inserting a row houses mews system within a residential block building. Through LOWEST POINTS treating the edges in various ways the three edges are addressed appropriately.

Through different design strategies, establishing setbacks, and twisting and turning volumes, appealing spaces are created and a remarkable horizontal differentiation is achieved in plan. A reference to a medieval self-contained city is realized by a residential core and a protecting ring of office building structures surrounding the centre, with main roads cutting through the fabric and an artefact in the middle to create interesting space. However the inward looking treatment of the site as an island is problematic to its context. This is due to its programme, which is driven by real estate Public space (topwill left) interests and therefore contain high-class and exclusive residential uses and offices. A better Elements of design: setback and podium (top right) way of using the potential of the Sugarhouse Lane can be explored in a more strategic plan.

Higherachy of the height (bottom) 10 MID-SCALE : TEST 108 MID-SCALE : TEST

STREET-CHURCH-STREET STREET-CHURCH-STREET

12

MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 109

WATERFRONT IN THE NORTHEAST - HARD & SOFT EDGE 15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 20

TEST l IKEA’S VISION FOR EAST LONDON STREETSCAPE IN THE NORTHWEST AND POROSITY

ON ITI

WATERFRONT IN THE NORTHEAST - HARD & SOFT EDGE

ED

GE

III

CO ND

TION

I COND

II

EDGE

15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 22

15.02.2011__Interim-Review_DesignWorkshop_LowerLeeValley_1401_T2AAHU_DW2-LLV SugarHouseLane - LandProp‘s proposal (Ikea), The Grid, Hybridity 20

EDGE CONDITION II : STREETSCAPE

ION

DIT

ON

EC

EDG l EDGE CONDITION III : WATERFRONT

GREEN-WATER-GREEN IN THE SOUTHWEST - THE CANAL AS A XIS OF REFLECTION

112 MID-SCALE : TEST

EDGE CONDITION I: CANAL THROUGH PARK

110 MID-SCALE : TEST

EDGE CONDITIONS They propose different treatment of the three edges of the site. Massivitiy WATERFRONT IN THE NORTHEAST - HARD & SOFT EDGE towards Stratford High Street proliferates an urban atmosphere towards this edge and a new straight Waterfront addresses the canal’s edge in the northeast. On the south-west, the meandering shape of the water canal is used to introduce a park for the nearby residential area. Even a reference to a medieval self-contained city is realized in the plan. This area is constituted of a residential lower rise quarter in the middle, surrounded by a series of larger, outer, linear buildings used for protection. At the east corner of High Street the main road cuts through the fabric divided by a vertical column element (an industrial artefact) to create a vivid public space where the reference to an ancient market square is achieved. The program, which is mainly driven by real-estate interests, contains for the most part high- and middle-market residential uses mixed with spaces for the service industries.

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 111

TEST l IKEA’S VISION FOR EAST LONDON

Aix en en Provence Aix Provence San Sebastian

Trieste PetraPetra

SanSebastian Sebastian Athens San

Aranjuez Aranjuez Trieste

Turin Turin Athens

Aranjuez

Turin

Aranjuez

IKEA Proposal

Aranjuez

SHL

Manhattan

Manhattan Manhattan Bilbao

Berlin Turin Berlin

Bilbao Buenos Aires Bilbao

Philadelphia Turin Philadelphia

Madrid Buenos Aires Aranjuez Madrid Philadelphia

Madrid

Curiosity of the SHL-Grid: IKEA’S STRAND EAST DEVELOPMENT IKEA’S STRAND EAST DEVELOPMENT Narrow streets - deep plots.

M.1:5000 Aranjuez

Aranjuez

Aranjuez

SHL

SHL

Aranjuez

Aranjuez

Manhattan

STRAND EAST DEVELOPMENT Aix en Provence Petra San Sebastian Aix en Provence Petra Trieste AixAranjuez en Provence Petra San Sebastian San Sebastian

Aranjuez

Aranjuez

uriosity of the SHL-Grid: arrow streets - deep plots.

Trieste

Athens Aranjuez Turin Athens Aranjuez Aranjuez

Turin

SHL Turin Aranjuez SHL What is comparable what is not. ARanjyuey, ikea and the neighbourhood plot ssize. three things

AranjuezTrieste Athens

not 2...

Aranjuez Aranjuez

Curiosity of the SHL-Grid: Narrow streets - deep plots.

Manhattan Manhattan Manhattan Berlin

M.1:5000

M.1:5000

Comparison between SugarAranjuez houseand Sugarhouse Lane site (Bottom)Sugar houseLane Sugarhouse 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent

Berlin Berlin Bilbao

Buenos Aires Madrid Bilbao Philadelphia neighborhood Lane Turin neigh- Turin Lanesite neighMadrid BuenosPhiladelphia Aires Turin Buenos Aires Bilbao Philadelphia (West Ham) Madrid

bourhood Comparison between Aranjuez and Sugarhouse Lane site (Bottom)bourhood 2010 Nusamus Westham arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent Westham

Aix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Aranjuez Turin San Sebastian Aix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Aranjuez Aranjuez Turin San Sebastian Aix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Turin San Sebastian Aix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Aranjuez Turin San Sebastian Aix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Aranjuez Turin San Sebastian is comparable what is not.

ARanjyuey, the neighbourhood plot ssize. three things Aix en Provence Petra Athens ikea andAranjuez Turin San Comparison ofWhat theSebastian grid patternTrieste between IKEA proposal FURTHER

Aranjuez

SHL

Aranjuez What is comparable what is not. ARanjyuey, ikea and the neighbourhood plot ssize. three things

neighbourneighbourTESTING ON THE GRID hoods ‘Abbey SHL hoods ‘Abbey Aranjuez in the suburban region of Madrid and the West Ham neighbourhood Lane’SHL Lane’SHL

not(top 2... left) and other cities not 2...

Comparison AranjuezAranjuez andAranjuez Sugarhouse Aranjuez Comparison of the plot between size between and Lane site (Bottom) Comparison between Aranjuez and Sugarhouse Lane site (Bottom) 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia ventat Abbey Lane in the Lower Lea Valley are comparable in terms of their SugarhouseBerlin Lane site (top Bilbao right) SugarManhattan houseManhattan Buenos Aires Turin What is comparable what is not.Madrid ARanjyuey, ikea and the neighbourhood What is comparable plot ssize. what three is not. things ARanjyuey, ikea and the neighbourhood plot ssize. three Philadelphia Buenos Madrid Turin Philadelphia Berlin 2010 Nusamus arcilBilbao il eum quia vent quates diTurin ipsum 2010 Aires Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent Aranjuez, Buenos Aires Madrid streetscape and plot size. Compared to Westham and Manhattan Bilbao Philadelphia Berlin IKEA Proposalthe Buenos Aires Madrid Turin Manhattan Bilbao Philadelphia Berlin not 2... not 2...

Comparison between Aranjuez and Sugarhouse Lane Lane neighBuenos Aires Madrid Turin Manhattan Bilbao Philadelphia Berlin Comparison between Aranjuez and Sugarhouse Lane site (Bottom) Buenos Aires Madrid Turin Manhattan Bilbao Philadelphia Berlin StrandEast plan shows significantly narrower streets.

Besides economic site neighborhood 2010(bottom) Nusamus eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus il eumand quia vent Comparison between Aranjuezarcil and ilSugarhouse Lane site (Bottom) Comparison betweenarcil Aranjuez Sugarhouse Lane site (Bottom) Comparison between Aranjuez and Sugarhouse Lane site (Bottom) bourhood Aranjuez SHL

Aranjuez SHL Aranjuez SHL reasons to2010 overtake anarcil existing street system, might also be motive Aranjuez SHL 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum vent 2010 Nusamus arcilquia il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus Nusamus ilarcil eum il eum quia quia vent vent quatesthis di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia v Westham Manhattan Manhattan Manhattan for LandProp to restrict private cars in the smaller streets in Sugar House neighbourAix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Aranjuez Turin San Sebastian Lane. ovence Petra Trieste Turin San Sebastian hoods Aix en Provence Petra Trieste Athens Athens Aranjuez Aranjuez Turin San ‘Abbey Sebastian What is comparable what is not. ARanjyuey, ikea and the neighbourhood plot ssize. three things 112 MID-SCALE : TEST TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 113 not 2... Lane’SHL

Provence Petra Aix Provence Trieste San Sebastian sen comparable what is Comparison not.

ARanjyuey, ikea and the neighbourhood ploten ssize. things Petra between Aranjuez and Sugarhouse Lanethree site (Bottom)

Aranjuez

Athens

IKEA Proposal

Aranjuez TriesteTurinTurin Aix en en Provence Aranjuez Aranjuez AthensAix Provence Aranjuez PetraPetra San Sebastian Aranjuez IKEA Proposal Aranjuez SHL

SanSebastian Sebastian Aix en en Provence TurinTurin Aix Provence Trieste San

PetraPetra Athens

S

Genoa

TEST l IKEAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S VISION FOR EAST LONDON Berlin London

Dresden

Berlin

London London

Genoa

GENOA GENOA

London

London

GENOA

Comparison of the grid pattern_ IKEA proposal and other cities Just a comparison does not really do much. one has to understand what each grid does for the particular case. where genoa is not applicable. aranjuez is performing quite comparably...

Comparison of the grid pattern_ IKEA proposal and other cities Just a comparison does not really do much. one has to understand what each grid does for the particular case. where genoa is not applicable. aranjuez is performing quite comparably...

GENOA

GENOA

Dresden Dresden

NAME OF THE BOOK

17

Comparison of the grid pattern_IKEA proposal and other cities

114 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 115

TEST l IKEA’S VISION FOR EAST LONDON SHL as a world of its own.

LEISURE

SCHOOL WORKSPACE

IKEA as an island

TOWNCENTER WATERFRONT HOTEL HOUSING

PARK/ BEACH

RECREATION SQUARE

116 MID-SCALE : TEST

CONCLUSION: IKEA AS AN ISLAND CONDITION The surface of the Lower Lea Valley is understood as a landscape shaped over time, where the history of industrial production is represented by the artifacts spread loosely within the valley. The factor of time and transformation should be experienced through both the conversion and integration of these industrial artefacts, or just by their decay. Through thinking about the LLV in phases of development, the efficiency and sustainability of the large scale plan can be questioned. Large scale operations such as Ikea’s StrandEast development call for immediate construction and assume a mainly tabula rasa approach.

The analysis of the StrandEast proposition gives an understanding of the interests and the vision of a globally acting real-estate company. Ikea’s LandProp plan is coherent and reasonable according to its own agenda and planning ambitions, as it is restricted to limits of the Sugar House Island.

The positive aspects of this proposition are the preservation of certain existing and listed structures on the site, their ambition to create intriguing public spaces, the hierarchy and legibility within the fabric, and an appropriate approach to the edge conditions of the site.

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 117

TEST II SUGAR HOUSE LANE STUDIES

Drawings of the case studies (left) Introductory drawings for tests in Sugar house lane site (right)

118 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 119

TEST II SUGAR HOUSE LANE STUDIES

EDGE II

Edge contition I (top) EDGE I

EDGE III

Edge contition II (middle) Edge contition III (bottom)

120 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 121

TEST II SUGAR HOUSE LANE STUDIES

D C

A

Section A (top)

B

Section B (middle right) Section C (middle right) Section D (bottom right) Drawing of ariel view of Sugar house lane site (bottom left)

A

B

C

D

122 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 123

TEST II SUGAR HOUSE LANE STUDIES Applying Borneo Sporenburg to Sugar house lane site (top) Applying different fabric and grain to Sugar house lane site (middle) Applying Linked Hybrid to Sugar house lane site (bottom)

BORNEO SPORENBURG

Traditional grid pattern

New Clusters and blocks

Smaller cluster and pocket spaces

Typical grid pattern with high density buildings

Row housing

Odhamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Walk

Applying different housing types and grids to Sugar House Lane 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent The potentials of the possible street patterns 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent quates di ipsum 2010 Nusamus arcil il eum quia vent LINKED HYBRID 124 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 125

TEST llI THE POINTS OF INTENSITY

Plan I (top right) Plan II (top left) Points of intensity in middle scale (bottom)

126 MID-SCALE : TEST

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 127

TEST llI THE POINTS OF INTENSITY

POINTS OF INTENSITY

FIXED POINTS ( DRIVERS, INTENSITY POINTS )

INTENSITY POINTS

FIXED INTERNVENTIONS

FIXED POINTS ( DRIVERS, INTENSITY POINTS )

Superimposition of different layers (left) Plan I (right) Source: produced by group

VARIABLES

OPENED POINTS

THICKENED GROUND/ URBAN LANDSCAPE

URBAN LANDSCAPE THICKENED GROUND

128 MID-SCALE : TEST

Using three points of intensity in the Sugar House Lane including; the juxtaposition of the main lines of infrastructure, water and big structures, the first test deals with all three conditions. This includes the junction of the A12, Stratford High Street and the waterway, relating to the area to its west. The second is its relation to Stratford High Street intersecting the waterway and the Fat Walk, towards the Olympics and Stratford Centre. And the third is the bottom tip with the meeting of 2 canals of water, the Fat Walk and the presence of the Three Mills buildings.

Fixed interventions are used in this plan as starting from the points of intensity, and fixed strategic interventions are proposed to activate and boost the development of the area and its context. The variables in this plan include the territories between the fixed interventions will be developed as a sort of testing ground, flexible in terms of time, typology and programme necessities. The urban landscape and thickened ground recognize the character of the valley as a piece of urban landscape, and a different piece of the city, the ground hosting the typologies is thickened in order to be part of the artificial new landscape.

THICKENED GROUND/ URBAN LANDSCAPE

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 129

TEST llI THE POINTS OF INTENSITY

POINTS OF INTENSITY

GEOMETRY

Superimposition of different layers (left) Plan II (right) Source: produced by group

TYPOLOGIES

CONNECTIONS 130 MID-SCALE : TEST

Plan 2 In this case the points of intensity are based in the same three points as in the first test; they are used as the key strategic interventions to foster the development of the territory. First they are used to intensify the west corner connecting to central London and second to intervene at the east corner towards to be the gate to the Olympic area and Stratford. And thirdly they reinforce the presence in the landscape of big objects and the identity the Three Mills area in order to regenerate the LLV context, using a new nodality to reinforce the activities of the Fat Walk in addition to generating a new east to west relation.

The silent geometry of the context, as well as the urban grain present in the edges of the site give us a tool to unveil different grids in the area and allowing the Sugar House Lane to become an intersection of these grids.

The types and the urban grain that are proposed started from the reinterpretation of the existing edge grain and the reading of the valley as a physical concept. This concept is applied by intensifying the motorwaysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; edges in height and mass, and softening them towards the canal and the bottom of the valley.

The connections in the area are characterized by isolated urban areas separated by heavy lines of infrastructure. One of the roles that Sugar House Lane can play is integrating the area by generating a new east to west connection making it possible to open the borders of the actual communities to the new activities and spaces happening in the valley.

TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 131

MID-SCALE TWO STRIPS As propositional approach we decided to examine the notion of Strips understood as long lines that bind and interweave fragmented territories in the complex landscape of LLV. They are the central element of our proposal aiming to structure and connect new urban areas and form the basis of an alternative development strategy. Thus they are not just about scattering build-up areas across the LLV, but are part of a larger framework and are diversified by a range of different elements, such as points of intensity and edge conditions.

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TWO STRIPS EXISTING CONDITIONS

Pudding Mill Railway Line

Pudding Mill Railway Line

AA11 11STRATFORD Stratford HIGH HighSTREET Street

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SUGAR LANE AREA SugarHOUSE House Lane Area

Bromley By Bow Railway Line

Bromley By Bow Railway Line

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TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 137

TWO STRIPS EXISTING CONDITIONS

Existing conditions of the north strip Source: google street view collaged by group The Northern Strip follows an infrastructural line in the Valley that people use continuously to get from East to West, thereby proposing to exploit an already existing mobility infrastructure in a more effective way. The Northern strip is characterized by numerous industrial and commercial businesses some in disuse creating leftover spaces and barriers. That can for instance be seen by the sequence of abandoned buildings and empty lots.

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TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 139

TWO STRIPS EXISTING CONDITIONS

Points of Intensity

Existing conditions of the south strip Source: google street view collaged by group The southern Strip is a new proposed one - crossing through the bottom of the Sugar Points of Intensity House Lane and extending out on both sides to the residential areas. Here is a very differThe materialised ‘Strip’ ent condition on Stratford High Street. It is characterized by a series of old industrial (Texture, Material Surfacethan & Structure) structures and masses, creating an opportunity for a new spatial experience and the linkis the linking of Westham Station and the Film Industries interesting.

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TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 141

TWO STRIPS IMAGING THE STRIPS

IMAGING THE STRIPS (COLLAGES OF INVESTIGATIVE WORK) To give an idea of how we approached this investigation of strips, we will first go through collages of investigative work that we did in order to come up with a final proposal.

The following three pages show reflections on the layout of the Strips, the result of investigative work we did studying the potential of our Stripapproach â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they are imaginary ideas of what the strips could be like.

The three possible tracks for further development shall not be seen as dictating for the exact concept of the intervention, but they indicate the line of thought that preceded the final proposals: Newly proposed master plans (left) and the strips (right)

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TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 143

TWO STRIPS IMAGING THE STRIPS

1: A SEQUENCE OF NODES CREATING A NEW ROUTE Could we imagine the creation of a completely new route through several enclaves, highlighting existing and new focal points? This study suggests a sequence of recognisable elements that give rhythm and coherence to a fragmented area.

Public space design in Spoorzone Delft by Joan Busquets, 1999 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2009 Source: http://www.bau-barcelona.com/studio/projects

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White city in London UK by OMA, 2004 Source: http://oma.eu/projects/2004/white-city

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TWO STRIPS IMAGING THE STRIPS

2: A SERIES OF SURGICAL INTERVENTIONS ON A BORDER The focus in this track suggests that a series of interventions is surgically placed on the edges between existing communities or infrastructural borders to have a larger scope of influence upon their surroundings. Thus, the focus is laid on the boundaries between several enclaves. It deals with turning border non-places into meaningful spaces in the public domain.

A highway buffer zone can become a new centre, an abandoned river side can become a main square. Can former boundaries become future destinations?

Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle by Weiss/ Station City in Stockholm Sweden, 2010 Source: http://oma.eu/projects/2010/station-city Manfredi, 2001-2007

Bryghusprojektet in Copenhage Denmark, 2008 Source: http://oma.eu/projects/2008/bryghusprojektet

Source: http://www.archdaily.com

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TWO STRIPS IMAGING THE STRIPS

3: BLENDING LANDSCAPE The last track focuses on a completely new-build architectural element that binds together all enclaves. Here the Strip is presented as a stretched, long, iconic building, filled with new programs. Most importantly the purpose of this type of Strip is to absorb and synthesize all existing environments it meets on its way - could this ultimately lead to a completely new superstructure and a completely new type of urban space?

Gent Oude Dokken in Gent Belgium by OMA, 2004

Plan for Rio de Janeiro and Argel by Le Corbusier Source: source is in progress

Qianhai port city in Shenzhen China by OMA, 2010 Source: http://oma.eu/source: http://oma.eu/projects/2010/qianhai-port-city

Source: http://oma.eu/projects/2004/gentoude-dokken

148 LOWER MID-SCALE LEA: VALLEY TWO STRIPS

“The design organizes the site in a series of parallel bands running east-west. The irregular extension of these layers form a stack of different and juxtaposed types of space, each varying in terms of architectural typology, density, and landscape” TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 149

TWO STRIPS 1

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TWO STRIPS TRANSFORMING SUGAR HOUSE LANE From the abovementioned explorative research we distilled four core elements that form the essence of our approach:

1 Existing Strips 2 Fragmentation of neighbourhoods inbetween the two Strips 3 Void space along the Strips 4. The Strips blocking connectivity

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TWO STRIPS THE PROPOSAL

1. CONNECTIVITY

2. VOIDS

First of all, as previously illustrated, the fragmented Lower Lea Valley consists of small bits of developed and undeveloped land making up an archipelago of discontinued neighbourhoods.

The current absence of a comprehensive street network and the bad local movement patterns between neighbourhoods is made worse by numerous movement barriers such as the network of waterways, elevated railways and large roads with

Secondly, the common feature and the challenging element along the Strips is the unexploited void space that makes the current corridors more barriers than connecters. As seen through the diagram they block north-south connectivity, as well as limit access in an east-west direction.

Several master plans projected for the area suggest individual developments, such as IKEA’s and Tesco’s, that have little attention for the larger Lower Lea Valley plan – thereby running the risk of fragmenting the valley even further. In this way, an obvious quality in developing along the Strips is that they extend across the Valley to link existing communities from east to west and dissolve existing borders. As opposed to developing one territory, they synthesize several territories, infrastructural systems, landscape conditions and building fragments.

Yet, important is to mention that it is not only about making a route. Connecting alone is not enough. It’s also about introducing new programs, integrating different neighbourhoods, providing a base for the creation of new meetings and places of production, so the connectivity question ultimately becomes a question of productive way.

We want to alter this by focusing on the voids and turn agglomerations of left-over space along the Strips into centres of attention. In this way The Strips force urban politics to work with negative spaces, like vacant plots, and to squeeze out its latent urban qualities. Equally, for Atelier Bow Wow the 21st– century regeneration projects are focused on the space between buildings. In their book Made in Tokyo (2008) they refer to an interesting “void phobia” model – That is a planning model, they argue, where there is always a reaction to “what a waste”, we should try to focus on the contaminated void spaces of LLV and thus - as shown in the last chapter - they will be the central place for a range of interventions.

“These voids can become a breathing space within the overdense urban environment – and can be re-cycled into a completely new use […] void and its assemblies can become a tool for a future worm’s eye view urban planning” (Kaijima, 2008, p 32)

SUBTITLE TWO STRIPS SUBTITLE THE PROPOSAL SUBTITLE

3. THE FRICTION BASED CITY

4. A DIFFERENT WAY OF PLANNING

A third, essential, aim of the Strips is to enable both social, economic and spatial mix along its line.

“The idea of an intervention that by virtue of its limit organization is able to augment the city fabric in such a way as to serve as an instrument that both re-structures and enriches the immediate context, while at the same time stimulating a set of unforeseen repercussions and developments” (Frampton, 2008: 7)

What was before fragmented enclaves in the Lea Valley– will be blend together. Here programmatic friction is produced when for instance commercial structures meet rural nature, and here friction between scales is generated as a large-scale social housing block is inserted into a small-scale row-house neighbourhood. Ultimately this seeks to enable new types of meeting and living places as well as new types of places of production.

Lastly, the Strips attempt to project a different vision to plan in the Lower Lea Valley. By inserting smaller spatial interventions in existing fabric they aim to puncture certain areas and by doing so turning these into more productive territories. What for instance will the outcome be when injecting a new residential housing complex on top of existing car businesses? Can they is to relax the control-based rules and instead, through smaller injections, generate unpredictable, unforeseen urban synergies.

The essence of our intervention is thus to achieve maximal effect through a range of smaller interventions – as alternative to the planning of large, conventional redevelopment plans, large areas in the valley.

Possibly the small interventions could even be laid out as free the planning of IKEA’s development local groups didn’t have much say. With no apparent chance of being realized all at once, the interventions along the Strips might raise new debates of how we will plan the Lower Lea Valley in the future.

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TWO STRIPS INTENSIFICATION

A 11 STRATFORD HIGH STREET

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TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 157

SUBTITLE TWO STRIPS SUBTITLE INTENSIFICATION SUBTITLE

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NAME OF THE BOOK TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 159

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SUGAR HOUSE LANE As described when testing Landpropâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal for a new IKEA village, Sugar House Lane exists in the middle scale of the LLV. It is bordered by water and infrastructure and littered with post-industrial leftovers. However the area also contains existing creative and cultural industries - such as the Three Mills Film Studio â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and related to that are outsized structures, like the old Sheds, which have the potential to generate new forms of centralities. What follows is two detailed examples of interventions done on strategic points on Sugar House Lane, both integrated as part of a larger approach for the middle scale.

TWO INTERVENTIONS

INTERVENTION I

A 11 STRATFORD HIGH STREET

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“The question of how we really get communities to recognise, accept and interact with one another is ultimately one that requires visual thinking. “ “The edges between any two communities – whether differentiated racially, in terms of wealth or in terms of their programmatic focus – could be a site where people interact.”

Richard Sennett, contribution to “Global Cities” exhibition: 2007 TATE Modern ST

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STRATFORD HILL As part of a series of interventions on the northern strip (Business & Infrastructure), Stratford Hill combines a mixed work/live environment with a special approach to both a waterfront and a busy High-Street. Making more permeable edges and enhancing interaction between communities.

This intervention tries to materialise the drivers of landscape, and the three dimensionality of the Valley fond in its infrastructure and extending to the geography of the Greenway. Topography is used as a tool in the form of the plinth which acts as a mediator between different privacies and shaping a new, softer water’s edge. From the intervention to the south, it creates smaller appealing public strip combining Stratford High-Street with both of the proposed interventions along the water. The surface of the northern Strip creates a new centrality where the urban meets the suburban.

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE STRATFORD HIGHT STREET

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TRANSFORMING THE LOWER LEA VALLEY: BEYOND THE LARGE-PLAN 175

SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE WATERWAY

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INTERVENTION I STRATFORD HILL

Conceptual diagram (left) ‘Office and Housing Caochangdi’ by AiWeiWei in Beijing, China 2005 (right)

CONCEPTUAL APPROACH In this architectural intervention, the shaping element is an elevated plinth which rises towards the Stratford High Street to form a podium hosting restaurants, shops, and offices and descending towards the water edge to open up the extended rooftop for waterfront access in certain areas. This plinth performs as mediator between the business oriented uses below and the residential uses above. By integrating existing buildings and vertically dividing the façade, the streetscape avoids monotony while keeping up a desired frontality. Like big objects distributed loosely in the landscape, the office towers on top of the plinth at the high street create a vibrant urban atmosphere.

CASE STUDY: ‘OFFICE AND HOUSING CAOCHANGDI’ BY AIWEIWEI Initially intended to house artists and their project spaces, Ai Wei Wei’s housing environment gives a dense but low rise suburban atmosphere. This organization inspired the intended living environment on top of the plinth in intervention 1.

Through the implication of inner courtyards, separating fences, mews and narrow meandering streets, different surfaces, articulated volumes and topography, this combination of shaping elements creates differentiation and in the end a set of different privacies reaching from individual enclosed terraces down to the public waterfront passage. The emerging suburban landscape provides the essential condition for our understanding of a contemporary living and working environment.

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INTERVENTION I STRATFORD HILL

Plan of Stratford Hill (top left) Section A: Relation between water way and Stratford Hill (top right) Section B: Relation between with Stratford High Street and Stratford Hill (bottom)

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INTERVENTION I STRATFORD HILL

Relation between Stratford High Street and Stratford Hill

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INTERVENTION I STRATFORD HILL

Relation between water way and Stratford Hill

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INTERVENTION I STRATFORD HILL

Sectional collages (top)

WORK AND LIVE THE COURT YARD AS SPATIAL INTEGRATION OF WORK AND LIVE As knowledge-based economies become more prevalent, there is an increasing need for highly flexible and attractive spaces. Such spaces are provided below the plinth accessible through a system of connected courtyards from the top of the plinth, water’s edge and High-Street. The Courtyards and light tubes (what are the light tubes? We haven’t mentioned this before) provide natural light.

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INTERVENTION I STRATFORD HILL

Intervention2

View into the courtyard

A section and a plan of the courtyards (left) A sketch of the courtyards (right)

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INTERVENTION II

“Landscape is emerging as a model for urbanism. Landscape has traditionally been defined as the art of organizing horizontal surfaces…. By paying close attention to these surface conditions – not only configuration, but also materiality and performance – designers can activate space and produce urban effects.”

Landscape as urbanism by Charles Waldheim. pp36-37 (right)

INTERVENTION 2:

IDEA SHED The shed and series of diverse spatial experiences

Characterized by an interconnected organic, streamlined surface, this intervention houses inclusive spaces for purposes of leisure, education, and entertainment for the existing citizens. Through section cut the landscape quality of the mega structure and the link to the existing area by the idea of an anthropogenic landscape, distributing knowledge and services. This intervention is named the Knowledge Playground with its emphasis on the creation of unique spaces for learning experience. This architectural intervention creates a sequence of inspiring, spontaneous spaces contrasted by rigid classrooms and structures. These conditions metal shed in order to create a separate condition which houses a more structured space. This is a potential area where global conventions and exhibitions may take place.

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE

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INTERVENTION II IDEA SHED

Intervention3 Tshumi_Le Fresnoy Intervention3

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Different layers of Idea Shed (left) Le Fresnoy Art Center by Bernard Tschumi in Tourcoing France, 1991-1997 (right) EXISTING SHED

CONCEPTUAL APPROACH This intervention is an educationally-driven as well as a landscape driven intervention. This is the Knowledge Playground with emphasis on the creation of unique and different spaces for the experience of learning on an engaging shaped surface. This architectural intervention creates urban effects through surface conditions and configurations while using materiality and performance to activate space and create urban effects.

USING EXISTING SHED, CREATING UNIQUE SPATIAL QUALITIES In section (next page) the landscape quality of the mega structure and the link to the existing area can be seen. There are various programs in this learning centre, including classrooms and adaptable spaces of experience and opportunity. There is some degree of adaptability while some parts are preprogrammed or preconfigured for special uses.

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INTERVENTION II IDEA SHED

SECTION A-A

B

A

SECTION A-A

Plan of Idea Shed (top) Section A : different spatial qualities (middle) Section B : different spatial qualities (bottom)

SECTION B-B A SECTION B-B

SECTION C-C B SECTION C-C

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INTERVENTION II IDEA SHED

Sectional perspective showing different spatial experiences

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INTERVENTION II IDEA SHED

View from inside (top left) View from outside, underneath the ground floor (bottom left) View from outside (right)

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INTERVENTION II IDEA SHED

Sectional collages

ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE: LEARNING CENTER This space is not a school environment focused on children but a ‘laboratory of fun’ and knowledge where one can choose what to do, observe others, learn how to handle tools, paint, machinery, or just listen to music, dance, talk or see how other people make things work. It is in the multi-levelled inner courtyards where people are visible to others. It is a place where they can gather to help each other learn or to simply relax.

This space is not comparable to traditional learning environments such as schools but also integrates spaces for formal gatherings like conferences.

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Intervention3 INTERVENTION II IDEA SHED

A park / unobstructed ground level - public movement routes through the complex Plan of Idea Shea (top left) Section of Idea Shed showing the existing shed (top right) Section of the modified existing shed (middle) Fun palace by Cedric Price (Bottom)

A

SECTION A-A

Intervention3 Access to knowledge: Fun Palace by Cedric Price

CEDRIC PRICE FUN PLACE

Intervention3

SECTION B-B

“The important thing was that there no longer was any strict time or space composed by the artist but, rather, mechanical systems reconfiguring in every possible way in response to circumstances” (Isozaki on Price’s Fun Palace, Project Japan, p 20) CEDRIC PRICE 1960, BERNARD TSCHUMI, 1991 Based on the theory of Cedric Price’s Fun Palace as a free place to learn and explore and its structural principles, the Fun Palace also emulates Tschumi’s Le Fresnoy as a massing of existing like-structures under one roof creating a megastruture.

It is through this proposed intervention the idea of architecture and urbanism as ecology, of buildings and environments, and as self-sustaining and adaptable structures can be viewed.

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SUBTITLE SUBTITLE SUBTITLE

CONCLUSION Looking back on the work of this design workshop - the core study has been formed by the proposal of the Strips and its adjoined interventions. This approach is an adequate reaction on the opportunities and challenges of the LLV, a complex urban landscape squeezed between the vast developments of the 2012 Olympic Park and the deprived low-income residential areas in its direct surrounding. There has been comprehensive material produced for this workshop and we are aware that some of the questions raised still needs responses. Although a concluding text is difficult to write at this point we want to stress some of the issues that might be interesting to bring forward.

First of all, our proposal exploit LLV’s potential as intermediate city, re-defining its landscape as a post-industrial valley between city and nature. A landscape with a combination of large infrastructure and man-made landform and hence not simply a poetic and scenic attraction.

This aspect, we argued, bears a huge potential of redevelopment.

Secondly, as crucial part of our proposal, mobility infrastructure proofed essential in our treatment of the valley landscape - not just as roads, rails and waterways but as a notion that can be both connection and barrier, route and destination. In hindsight we should look upon the Strips and its interventions in the light of this notion, continuously trying to strengthen its function as connector and aiming to dissolve boundaries.

Thirdly, our proposal proofs a counter vision opposing the current way in which the archipelago of neighbourhoods in the Lower Lea Valley is further fragmented by superimposed developments like that of IKEA’s. Thus the Strips offers a series of interventions using existing - and introducing new – points of intensity to create productive synergies, knowledge exchanges and new connections. Not as a master plan, but as a collection of smaller insertions.

This brings us back to the beginning, the notion of multiscalarity. Where this approach on multiple scales was often absent in current planning initiatives in the Lower Lea Valley, we showed how it is pivotal in the understanding and well-functioning of contemporary urbanism.

Not only to link the area to an international mobility network or improve its knowledge position, but more importantly to balance the static top-down master plan with an adaptable, contextual approach where local influences can flourish.

May 17th 2012

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