If you’re heading to London for the LI Conference on Friday 7 September, book your place now for Hardscape’s afternoon walking tour from 2.30-4.30pm: “From the ground up: the evolving Greenwich Peninsula.”
The development of the O2 arena marked a new beginning for the Greenwich Peninsula. Now the area has become a hotbed of cutting-edge architecture and design, progressive public realm and an emerging ‘new London’, which is set to shape the way people live, work and socialise for centuries to come.
The project is an ever-evolving feat, 20 years in the making and being shaped and moulded by all involved. The Greenwich Peninsula Riverside area is no exception. The project includes the development of seven residential plots as part of the second phase of the Riverside South masterplan, providing over 1,300 new apartments, alongside a new community and leisure building.
From a landscape perspective, Turkington Martin was responsible for the concept and detailed design of the communal gardens for each plot. The practice also designed the public realm infrastructure – creating a modern urban setting of shared streets, rain gardens and new social spaces for the emerging neighbourhood.
The public realm was delivered over a number of construction phases and developing a design guide at the outset ensured a seamless composition on completion. A restrained palette of paving materials was selected to provide a consistent visual language, which enabled subtle variation, where required, to denote the hierarchy of streets, movement patterns and function.
Acquired by developers Knight Dragon at a mid-way point, the long-term project took a new lease of life, as the goals and final vision shifted to become even more ambitious. This required all involved to embrace a new direction and realign all aspects of the design.
Mike Martin, Director at Turkington Martin, said: “It has been an exciting time working with Knight Dragon as they placed great importance on temporary uses as part of their placemaking strategy as well as demanding a good quality permanent public realm that meets the needs of everyone at the Peninsula. Their creative and enthusiastic approach required design collaboration with five architect practices, which we believe helped deliver a fully integrated and elegant solution across Greenwich Peninsula Riverside.”
Having sourced and supplied hard landscaping materials for a number of cutting edge projects within the Greenwich Peninsula vision, Hardscape’s team of specialists were well-equipped to overcome the complexities involved with projects of this size and scale.
Asil Besim, Group Technical Manager for Hardscape, said: “Our ongoing relationship with the Peninsula started more than ten years ago with the supply of Kellen, granite paving and kerbs to the area around the O2 arena. Since then we have collaborated on a number of landmark projects some of these complete and some still to come to fruition.
“It is a fascinating development which is constantly evolving and responding to the needs of the growing community. We are proud to be playing a key role in bringing our expert knowledge in the supply of materials to such a landmark project which will make a lasting impact on London and beyond.
“From a material perspective, it is so satisfying to see the flexibility of the Kellen product offer as the Peninsula grows and spans different uses.”
This September Hardscape will join forces with landscape architects Turkington Martin as the Landscape Institute invites you to discover the Greenwich Peninsula with a series of walking tours, as part of its conference, Valuing Landscape: Connecting People Place and Nature.
Together Hardscape and Turkington Martin, will explore how landscape practitioners and suppliers can combine their skills to adapt and respond to evolving briefs, with a focus on the 5,000 home development at Greenwich Peninsula, home of the O2 and the Emirates Cable Car.
