East Village: Urban Design Impact

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Architects consider a fitting urban design to be of a ‘pictorial’ mode, and this implies that they treat a well-fitted designed city as a work of art, and not a setting meant for everyday life. However, scholars such as Appleyard (1979) point out that professionals might regard the environment as a sensuous experience, or a physical setting, yet seldom regard it as a political or a social symbol. This is not the case of East Village. Urban designing of an area contributes to social networking, which consequently establishes the concept of place making (Stiftel et al., 2006). This factual underpinning aligns with the case of East Village, Stratford. East Village Stratford is situated in East London, Stratford, and during the 2012 Olympics Games in London, it housed athletes from across the globe. However, whilst considering East London’s future, there has always been London Council’s rebranding agenda, wherefore; initial development plans had already been put in place in 2002, to be incorporated amongst the world city agenda (Gregory, 2011). Noteworthy, having bid, and succeeded to host the Olympics, London was presented with a vast opportunity, which could ensure large-scale investment, unparalleled by any UK urban development scheme, precisely since the 1960s. Prior to the occurrence of this mega event, various planners, as well as developers had become conscious on the rebranding, and creation of a new image for the East London, owing to the initially made plans in 2002. In this respect, they had planned designs, which are up to date, and as such, are regarded as the largest ever, that London has received in its list of applications. The design comprised of major new employment districts, and this was in addition to Europe’s largest urban retail centre (Cosgrove and Daniels, 2008). This area was set to include various new open places, a mixed tenure residential neighborhood, completed with sufficient infrastructure, as well as 4,500 homes. Each plot was designed to have a unique architectural character, whilst based on a component of set standards, referred to as the ‘integrated platform.’

The Olympic Delivery Authority, coupled up with Lend Lease, as sixteen architects, as well as development manager working on various distinct areas of Stratford, and Fletcherpriest Architects purposed to develop the initial master plan. Re-developing East London had long been initiated and as such, the hosting of the 2012 Olympics came at a perfect timing, as it was coincidental with the scheme, due to the fact that it provided perfect opportunity for massive re-development, thus, aiming towards marking Stratford a global city (Allmendinger, 1998). In line with this, the 2012 Olympics enabled London to gain the opportunity of tackling socio-economic concerns in the city and to re-brand the then run-down Stratford’s image.

1.2 Aim and objectives

This study majorly focuses on the manner in which the urban design of Stratford City results into place making in the area through the use of CGIs that purpose to establish a new imagined geography. Notably, the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games provided a significant opportunity, concerned with re-imaging of the city, which this study purposes to explore. The ultimate aim of the study thus, is as presented below:

Aim:

• To investigate how the geographical imaginations and urban design of East Village have contributed to place making in East Village.

In meeting the aforementioned aim of the study, this paper breaks it down into achievable objectives, which are as presented as follows:

Objectives:

a) To explore the future geographical imagination of EV and how these have been reflected in its planning design

b) To explore how the urban design of East Village has contributed to place making and this includes its architectural design, the nature use, local facilities, and strategic placements

1.3 Research questions

The objectives of this study, then present various questions, which this paper will purpose to answer, in order to meet the ultimate research aim. The questions revolve around official planning documentation, design plans, as well as CGIs. In this regard, this paper questions how place making by use of CGIs, as well as physical planning occurs through aestheticisation, use of physical environment for inhabitation, and through visual, as well as symbolic coherence to a given area that is aligned with the new city image. Of importance to note is also the fact that London’s hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games acted as a catalyst for the unravelling of the city’s urban vision, thereby, questioning whether urban design can play a significant role in East Village place making. The following secondary research questions will need to be answered in the paper:

1. What geographical imaginations read out of the urban plan for East Village?

2. How has the urban design of East Village contributed to place making?

Taking a keen note of the secondary research questions presented above, it is then deducible that the ultimate primary research question for this study is as follows:

Is urban Design playing a role in place making in East Village?

1.4 Rationale and purpose

This paper will purpose to explore ways in which landscape or design has significantly and successfully, contributed towards place making in London’s urban design, which can consequently be able to convert even its various deprived areas (Davies & Kelly, 2014). Owing to the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, there has been need for urban transformation to enhance more social networking. The pre-Olympics created the need for re-imaging of the city during the post Olympics. The Olympic Delivery Authority oversaw the design, as well as the construction of the city, and thus the future of the city is yet to be determined when the CGIs, official planning documentation, and design plans will have taken their courses (Punter, 1988). This paper explores the manner in which the design planning process since 2002 has significantly contributed towards place making in the East Village. Owing to the strict functional beliefs that athletes and future mixed tenure residents had, the traditional villages and the communities have been developing organically over the years. Moreover, architectural designs have contributed to the foundation and formation of various urban imaginaries (Allmendinger & Tewdwr-Jones, 2005). The imagines spaces that can be achieved through design establish the concept of place making in the local area. For these reasons, the Olympic legacy made London to re-think about re-imaging its city. On the other hand, these act as a motivating factor towards the need to establish foundations, resulting to a thriving, and ultimate self-sustaining community.

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter provides the reviews from the literature, regarding the subject. It provides various scholarly provisions, which aid in backing up the information provided, which will be used in the subsequent chapters. This chapter will begin by providing the history of east village. Thereafter, it will explore deeply on urban planning/design, and finally, provide scholarly underpinnings on place making. Conclusively, this chapter provides a definitive conclusion, which summarizes its content.

2.2 History of East Village

Over the years, many urban areas in the UK have had significant change, and have as well faced various opportunities and challenges, which have included regeneration, and urban sustainability (Kaika, 2011). After many London docks were closed in the 1960s, very many people lost their jobs, and this forced many people to seek for jobs elsewhere. In the years between 1981 and 1998, various London Docklands faced urban regeneration, and it notably continuing to date. For instance, Canary Wharf is a section of the London Docklands that had expensive apartments, large company head offices, as well as exclusive shops (King, 2004). East Village was originally referred to as Olympic Village Stratford, and it lies on the London’s Docklands. East village initially accommodated most of the deprived communities in London, where many unemployed individuals were many, and health levels were poor (King, 2004). The country lacked sufficient infrastructure, and the quality of the environment was poor. It is significant to note that in the mid-twentieth century, there was a rapid increase in the rate at which Anthropologists purposes to enhance social analysis, in London’s urban context (Kaika, 2011). In this regard, after the success of the country’s bid to host the 2012 London Olympics, the park was named Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and it was thereafter regenerated, for it to be useful to local people. The Olympic village was designed in a manner that it significantly accommodated athletes and based on the regeneration program, local people re-used the buildings, and they were then regarded as new residential district for Olympic Village, Stratford (McNeill, 2008). Whilst considering the competitive process encountered during the bidding process, the Labor British government decided on a proposal, which was provided by the Lend Lease Project Management and Construction (Baylissm 2007). This proposal covered construction, as well as financing of the Olympic Village, and also a section of the London Olympics Media Centre (Hamnett & Whitelegg, 2007). This was primarily meant to cater for the accommodation of the 24,000 athletes, and later, its purpose was to provide private, and low-cost residential housing that comprised of offices, schools, health centers, as well as shops (McNeill, 2008).

The Lend lease was composed of a team of structural engineers, an urban planning architecture firm, as well as an architect Fletcher priest (Florida, 2002). They were briefed on how to design a village-garden kind of district, which could fit in with the vision of the urban park (Olympic Park Legacy), which purposed to emulate the classical layout of the Victorian architecture, as well as other sections of the Victorian west London (Florida, 2004). A compulsory purchase order secured the entire Olympic Park, under the London Development Agency (LDA) and in the late 2005; there was a break out of the row, over the utilization of the legal instrument (McNeill, 2008). This mandated that the Olympic Village site was to be located beside the £4Bn Stratford City development, and later on, there was an agreement. In this regard, the compulsory purchase order on the Westfield site was eradicated, and this was subject to the agreed access to the Olympic Village. Taking into consideration, the 2008 UK financial crisis, it is evident that the Lend Lease encountered difficulties in generating funds, to be used in the village constructions on the commercial markets, which could be used as the largest project in the 2012 Olympics (McNeill, 2008). The Government, under the Olympic Delivery Authority thus, came into agreement to underwrite a great part of the stipulated sum, as well as a scale-back of the Olympics project scale by 25%, based on the provision that the athletes that were to have their competition in various non-London based events were to be housed locally (Harvey, 2006). When the games had been concluded, the Olympic housing purposed to adapt to the creation of a residential quarter, which is presently known as East Village (Hamnett & Whitelegg, 2007). This construction established 2,818 new homes and this included 1,379 affordable homes, as well as houses, displayed for rent and sale. East Village’s community has been planned with wide vistas that are filled with parks, communal areas, as well as gardens, in which schools, health clinics, as well as shops are housed (Hospers & Pen, 2008). Having sold the homes, which were affordable to Triathlon Homes in the year 2009 for a sum of £268 million, there was a competitive tender that was issued in the year 2008, meant for the Olympic Delivery Authority’s interest in the 1,439 private homes that were remaining (Hospers & Pen, 2008). This was alongside six adjacent plots for future development with a significant potential for 2,000 more homes, as well as a long-term East Village management. Evidently, this creates UK’s first private sector residential funds that were equivalent to over 1,000 homes that were to be managed as investments (Paddison, 1993; cited in Hospers & Pen, 2008). Additionally, the developers purposed to develop new parklands, transport links, as well as health centers for the residents in East Village, and also other surrounding areas had been constructed. Moreover, independent retailers have come into the East Village, which is presently a neighborhood of its own (Swyngedouw et al., 2002).

2.3 Urban Planning/ Design

Landscape refers to a cultural image, which entails a pictorial manner of representing, symbolizing surroundings, as well as structuring. It is evident that landscape should be more palpable, more real or rather, less imaginary, and this is the case of imagined geography on the space occupied by East Village via urban design and landscape (Punter, 1988). The implications of verbal, built, as well as visual landscapes have a history that its complexity if interwoven. According to McNeill (2008), in order to have a deep understanding of the landscape of something, the written, as well as verbal representations are understood, and this is contrary to “illustrations” that provides imaginations that stand outside it, but of significance, is its constituent image meaning/meanings. Notably, the iconography presents probed stratum of meaning. On the other hand, McFarlane (2010) points out that imagined geography is not in any way, made up; rather it is regarded as a perceived reality that is represented on various materials as well as on surfaces, canvas, as well as painting. In referring to urban imaginary, the term “imaginary,” provides the implication of everyday ways, in which a given city is imagined as a city (Rose et al., 2014). Urban imaginary is an approach used as an alternative to data-driven empiricism, which dominates the analysis of an urban city in the present architectural culture. East Village is a project that purposes to achieve the integration of an urban design, landscape, as well as architecture through the establishment of a cohesive townscape (Sheller, 2009). Moreover, this will as well be possible through considering the movement from a macro to a micro scale, creation of a “remembered journey” through the space site, and establishing the components provided in the master plan that are explained through context, grid, axis, major space, build form, height (Barnes et al., 2006). Central to all these ideas of coming up with a perfect design for the city requires significant awareness of the broad context, thus, positioning the site within the Lea Valley, thus, enabling a fine and tactile experience for residents that purpose to enter their private dwelling (Bayliss, 2007). Significant to take note of, is the fact that a narrative device unites these scales, and creates a series of significant remembered journey that comprise of memorable routes through the entire village for visitors and residents.

According to Ben-Joseph (2009), the hierarchy of the master plan spatial settings creates an organizing device that explains and directs the design terms of the project. This enables the consideration of the importance, as well as intensity of various specific places in the Athletes Village, and the manner in which they correlate in establishing a broader context that is beyond the site (Bradley et al., 2002). In addition, the settings brings forth spatial conditions in the master plan, in which the physical environment purposes to respond to, in line with the expression, as well as articulation that is considered in a specific way, thus, making reference to the architectural condition and landscape in its immediate, as well as wider context (Ben-Joseph, 2009). In the planning parameters, the main spatial definition of the East Village site is documented in its parameter planes and the current version that are included in the document. They define the Parameter Plan 4, Zonal Boundaries Parameter Plan 5, Open Space Parameter Plan 6, Access and Circulation Parameter Plan 7, the Development Heights Parameter Plan 11, and Composite (Ben-Joseph, 2009). Noteworthy, architects, as well as landscape architects, are required to comply with various spatial constraints sets that are established in the parameter plans. The zonal planning parameter provides a great degree of partial definition that is beyond whatever is planned in the original planning parameters (Florida, 2002). Particularly, the development blocks have been defined in great precision. It defines the street layout, distribution of land use, as well as the overall maximum. In this regard, it creates a grid, and also a block plans, thus defining a hierarchy of various open places (Florida, 2004).

In implementing the process of design/planning, the procurement of the selected architects, landscape architects, the commissions, and how they are connected with the specific teams (master planners, clients, as well as review panels) will have to be managed effectively (Florida, 2004). A significant strategy has already been established, in order to enhance the allocation of various design commissions, to particular architects, having the responsibility for specific blocks, and also for subsidiary commissions needed within the blocks. Scholars such as Hamnett & Whitelegg (2007) note that all the architects had been drawn from the panel of the Athletes Village that was established in 2007 and was an open process, where applicants were sought from practices that were based in the UK and all over the globe. Overall, the design setting across the master plan indicates a significant implication for architectural expressions on the buildings in different locations, including the notion of foreground and background buildings, whereby, the former are intended to be more hierarchical in defining containing spaces of views (Harvey, 2006). In a bid to achieve this significant relationship, it is then essential that the design process and its development in individual blocks demonstrate the recognition of particular conditions that are established in the design plan.

2.4 Place Making

Place making poses as a process, and also a philosophy, which enhances urban experience. The architects of East Village were briefed on the manner in which they would design a district that is a village-garden kind and could purpose to fit the vision of an urban park (also referred to as Olympic Park Legacy) (Hospers & Pen, 2008). This was to target at emulating the classical layout of the all known Victorian architecture, and other section of the Victorian West London. Place making of the East Village purposed to establish the wide conditions of the site, to which various landscapes, as well as buildings, would respond, in terms of movement, build form, as well as open structures (Hubbard, 1995). The original master plan, as well as the zonal plan of East Villages, establishes various connects through the entire site. The master plan is significantly organized within a pedestrian spine, connecting it to the Stratford town center, through to the Lea Valley and other river systems towards the north and the west of the site. According to Macleod & Johnstone (2012), the connections that connect Leyton to Hackney also has a major driver that drives the development of the master plan proposal. The major objective of the proposals have been to achieve a significant level of interactions with East Village surrounding areas, thus, aiding in preventing some barriers created by the railway infrastructure (Madanipour, 2006). Moreover, in considering the zonal master plan, with regards to heights, enhances the establishment of a hierarchy, in which case, the tallest buildings are situated along the North Avenue (Paddison, 1993). In additionally, tall buildings are also located at the end of the Cascades, to exploit the views that are beyond the site, thus providing significant points of orientation. It is also significant to take note of the fact that distribution of the use of land is defined as a strategic scale, which entails the outline consent that sets the maxima for all developmental zones (Russo, 2008). The zonal master plan demonstrates the concept of land distribution within the entire development block, and this is set in the development brief (Hubbard, 1995). The land use strategy within the Athletes Village creates predominantly residential districts that are centered on public open spaces (Swyngedouw et al., 2002).

Dense, and also, active hotel, as well as commercial activities are provided in significant areas, towards the North of the international station, adjacent to the cluster, responding to the public transport provision density. Towards the northern side of the site, a second cluster of various community activities is also provided, adjacent to the health care facilities and the community spaces (Hubbard, 1995). The zonal master plan purposes to identify the location of key elements of landscape, and open space, which develop the principles that had already been established within the open space strategy (Zukin, 1995). The major open spaces are as follows: The first is the central open spaces; from the outset of the Stratford, the master plan sort to prioritize significant open spaces as the major defining project elements. The second is the Cascades and North Park, which is an area covering the Cascades, North Park, the ancillary small open spaces as well as the ecological wetlands that are around the attenuation pond, at the base level of the Cascade (Yin, 2003). The third is the Crescent Gardens that was initially referred to as the Crescent Park. This open space was meant to form its focus on the neighborhood in the Athletes Village’s eastern part. The fourth is the Alexandra Park, which has been newly added to the master plan, and has been created by the decision, focusing on extending the decking over the railway line of the High Meads Loop (Tasan-Kok & Baeten, 2012; cited in Hubbard, 1995). The Alexandra Park forms a significant linear space, which is a local address and provides a public route that connects the site, to the eastward side into Leyton. Overall, these spaces, as well as other open spaces form the vital settings within the master plan (Hubbard, 1995).

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2.5 Conclusion

This chapter provides significant information, which aids in backing up the information that will be provided in the subsequent chapters. Overall, the information provided in the history of East Village, urban planning/design, and place making assists in answering the research questions, using scholarly reviews. In turn, this aids in meeting the research objectives, and consequently, the research aim.

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