Living Building / Lived-in Building

Logged between the Olympic site to the East, the new hipster territories of Hackney to the North, and the new ‘London Vernacular’ housing developments of Fish Island to the South, Hackney Wick appears to be still left behind by gentrification, still resisting the social cleansing that make rents for local workshops and artists unaffordable. Located on the borders of the Borough of Tower Hamlets and outside Hackney, it feels like it doesn’t know where it belongs. Being part of what Peter Ackroyd calls the ‘Stinking Pile’ the area has never been part of the real London; but it seems to have always tried to carve its own path on the fringes of London. This special place is disappearing fast, and very soon the grain that defines it and the smells that identify it, are disappearing - taking with them a rich tapestry of intertwined stories and fading memories.

The building projects by the MSci students are set around Hackney Wick. They are responding to issues identified from our annual theme of Climate Change.

Students take on real issues and respond in their architecture to urgent social issues of the wider Hackney Wick area. The building proposals attempt to integrate the community and allow for an inclusive approach to the creation of space.