Mayor unveils £1.1bn vision for East Bank 05 June 2018
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today set out his £1.1bn vision for East Bank at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – a new powerhouse of culture, education, innovation and growth, and welcomed a £151m contribution now secured by the Government.
Sadiq unveiled new plans and building designs for Sadler’s Wells, London College of Fashion (part of University of the Arts London) and the V&A including a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, across Stratford Waterfront.
Of Silt, Rust and Chemicals
– A talk about the new Olympic Legacy project at Hackney Wick Station
In 2014 Landolt + Brown, working in collaboration with architect trained artist Wendy Hardie, were appointed to design an Olympic Legacy project at Hackney Wick Station, including a new public connection beneath the railway and associated public realm.
The design, embedding art within its process from the start, explores overlapping narratives drawn from the Lee River, its canal and lost chemical industries. It embraces the massive concrete structures required to form a new underpass, exposing and building on this weighty character to reflect the silt, mud flats and willows of the Lee. Its surfaces change from saw-tooth profile – drawing on the canal’s sheet piled edges and factory folding screens– to board-cast concrete stairs echoing the twisting bark and trunks of the weeping willows. A debossed frieze cast into the underpass is based on the chemical compounds of dyes, plastic and petroleum once produced at Hackney wick. A 35m continuous chain of glass hexagons, drawn from molecular chemistry, runs the length of the subway, creating a shimmering environment evoking memories of the compressed, enigmatic spaces under the canal towpath bridges. Canopies forming the underpass entrance are built of heavy-gauge, plated, weathering steel reinforcing the Wick’s gritty, industrial character.
The talk on site will be led by the architect with contributions from the collaborating artist, project engineers and the client team. The talk is free but please book using the Eventbrite link.
June 14, 2018
18:30 – 20:00
Admission: FREE
Tickets/Booking: Eventbrite
Venue
Hackney Wick Station
Hackney Wick Station Wallis Road London E9 5LH
The main entrance is from the south, via White Post Lane.
Today, a public trial of self-driving busses starts at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. You can read the press release below:
AUTONOMOUS SHUTTLE BUS TRIALS
Visitors to the Park in September can take part in a self-driving vehicle trial.
THURSDAY 24 AUGUST 2017
On 19 days throughout September, visitors can test out an innovative new way to explore the Park – on an autonomous shuttle bus, a completely self-driving vehicle.
Those wanting to take part can hop aboard the free service in the north of the Park and experience a new and developing technology. The shuttle buses use state-of-the-art technology, including sensors, cameras and GPS mapping to navigate the route. And while there will be an operator on board to answer questions, the service will be completely autonomous, so everyone on board can sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.
Developed by Navya, a leading name in the progression of smart and sustainable mobility solutions, and delivered at the Park by Keolis, a leading global transport operator, with the support of Engie, Here East and Our Parklife, the 100% electric vehicles are being tested in response to the increasing demand for smart new mobility solutions for busy urban environments. Keolis and Navya have already been trialling the vehicles in France, USA and Denmark and are looking into the possibility of using them in a range of locations including airports, university campuses and shopping centres.
As a centre of innovation and sustainability, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is the ideal location to trial this new approach to advanced mobility. Working in partnership with London’s clean-tech industry, the Park is rapidly becoming a world-leading test bed for trialling new approaches to meeting the global city-based challenges of our time. This autonomous vehicle trial is the first in a programme of initiatives that will lead to the trialling of fully autonomous, road-worthy vehicles on the Park by 2019.
Trial Dates:
Wednesday 6 to Friday 8 September 10am to 5pm
Monday 11 to Friday 15 September 10am to 5pm
Sunday 17 to Friday 22 September 10am to 5pm
Monday 25 September 10am to 5pm
Wednesday 27 to Saturday 30 September 10am to 5pm
New London Neighbourhood Tour – Olympic Park Saturday 9 September 2017
14:00-16:00
Stratford Station
Following the huge success of the 2012 Olympic Games, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and surrounding areas now continue to grow as one of London’s newest neighbourhoods, adapting the sustainable legacy of the park’s buildings and transport links to meet future needs.
Starting with the Olympic Stadium by HOK and its neighbouring Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects, we discover the site of Olympicopolis – a multicultural and academic cultural centre in the east being designed by Allies and Morrison and O’Donnell and Toumey. Tracing the meanders of the River Lea tributaries that criss-cross the park, we see Hackney’s thriving Copper Box by Make Architects and Populous and the transformed 2012 press and media hubs now Here East by Hawkins/Brown Architects. Hopkins Architects’ RIBA award-wining Velodrome presides over a two-wheeler zone, while over-the-bridge the bright blue Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis centres by Stanton Williams Architects define the QEOP’s north boundary. Finally, our walk will discover the multi-architect designed Athletes Village complex which now thrives as East Village – also home to vital local community amenities like Chobham Academy by AHMM and the Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health Centre by Penoyre & Prasad Architects.
This walk starts at Stratford Station, Westfield Exit through the ticket barrier in front of EAT.
