The London Outer Orbital Path, otherwise known as the London Loop, is a 150-mile long walking path encircling Greater London that lies within easy reach of London’s dense urban city centre.

This route occupies the space between the city fringes and London’s surrounding countryside, winding through diverse and unexpected landscapes - forest and woodland, former industrial sites, riversides paths, open fields and grazing land, estuaries, marshes and lush meadows - providing panoramas back toward the city. The units work will focus on the beginning and the end of the London Loop journey at the Thames Estuary. This area has a remote and still quality, it’s topography is typical of coastal landscapes yet it is an artificial landscape, dynamically traversed by motorway fly-overs, swooping power-lines and enclosed by high ditches.

To start the year the unit will set off on this journey by foot, exploring the diverse and precious landscapes adjacent to the river Thames.

In response to these flat and wild environments, fringed by industry, landfill sites and housing estates, the unit will develop structures and building proposals that represent an ‘escape from the city’ – new public spaces that provide a recreational resource for people locally as well as London wide.

In November the unit will travel to the Ruhr Valley in Germany (European Capital of Culture 2010) to visit the Emscher Landscape Park - a 50km long series of interlinked green spaces formerly inhabited by metal industries and mining.

PUBLIC WORKS, London - Marseille
Degree Unit F (2009/10)
University of East London, School of Architecture and Visual Arts
Public works exhibition: March 2010, What if: projects shop

The unit investigated the architecture of public and common space and design proposals aimed to bring a new sense of ‘public-ness’ to the dense urban housing areas of Shoreditch, London, an environment that currently suffers from high levels of deprivation.

We started the year by working with real clients. Students worked with Shoreditch-based performance companies and developed ideas for ‘Host Structures’ that could be incorporated in the proposed Shoreditch Theatre Festival taking place in 2011. Proposals inhabited a network of found neglected and vacant spaces within and around these housing blocks. Students then went on to develop individual designs proposals for ‘Cultural Outposts’ - buildings hostings programs of art and recreation that cater to community needs and bring a new and engaging activity to these estates.

At Firminy Vert and the Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles, designed by Le Corbusier, the unit explored and documented the playfulness of the shared communal spaces, materiality and the dynamic use of colour.

"Undergraduate Unit F, where everything is immediate and everything and everybody is focussed and engaged. All live projects on east London housing estates with theatre groups and residents. No fancy models, no fancy drawings; just models, samples and drawings. All ‘bald’ facts and propositions. Flat drawings, materials and data carried out with commitment and no bloody money. I’m amazed. This bunch of 2nd and 3rd year students has learned some vital lessons in listening and action. Long time, no see (anywhere). ...."
Review of Unit F by the architect Graham Modlen, written for Blueprint Magazine

‘How can we build on the capital generated by diverse communities and cultural differences that constitute city living?’ Diversity, the level of variety within a city, describes not only the richness of its ethnic and cultural composition but also much broader issues: the mix of people native to the city and newcomers, the spread of wealth, ages, education levels, skills, knowledge, and employment sectors.

The contexts for our research and proposals were inner city environments currently undergoing radical change. We considered the social impact of these changes. We also look at the empty, derelict or neglected spaces that are left behind and speculated on new opportunities that might be introduced in order to accommodate the needs of a diverse population.

Project (1) URBAN PIONEERS, Berlin; the unit documented examples of ‘Urban Pioneer’ projects that appropriate abandoned land and buildings and remodel these spaces through simple means and with local initiative.

Project (2) VACANT, Shoreditch, London; ideas were developed for the inhabitation of leftover, neglected or vacant sites in and around existing social housing developments.

Project (3) PLUG-IN, Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008; the units main project investigated three culturally diverse areas. Student projects explored the potential of the existing fabric in these neighbourhoods and proposals offered new forms of usage for the mutual benefit of existing and future residents.