Hackney Wick

At Hackney Wick, beside London’s Olympic quarter, we have developed a template for a different kind of city-making to that of its larger neighbour: granular rather than large scale, with many existing buildings retained, and mixing, not separating, employment and housing to make a compact city of streets and yards, not a park city.

Three sites in public sector ownership unlock a transformation of the public realm, from disconnected twisting lanes to a network of streets, as a part of a public space-led vision. The new North-South Cut shapes a local centre around the Overground station and either side of the canal; new yard spaces provide service access, pedestrian permeability and daylight; landscaped courts and canal-side pocket parks offer amenity to new residents. Social value will be delivered by increasing the employment capacity with extensive street level workspace, by retaining the Yard Theatre in a new building, and by the provision of new local retail. The area’s industrial past is respected by reducing the height of new development beside the robust old buildings that are retained, while several taller accents provide a rich dialogue between new and old.

We supported the London Legacy Development Corporation’s social, environmental and economic ambitions by tailoring design solutions to the multiple found conditions and constraints. We tested proposals for performance in terms of daylight and sunlight, vehicle movements and viability, and translated these into clear parameters and design codes for future development control.