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The promenade of light seamlessly extends all the way to the entrance of the station, with planting and strip LED lighting creating clear pedestrian circulation routes. The cross-hatched paving pattern is a visual representation of the four arms leading into the Old Street Iconic Gateway, reflecting the heritage of the roundabout as a crossroads.

The new design will create a landmark destination in its own right, transforming the Old Street Iconic Gateway from a trafficked roundabout into the public hub of the East London Tech City.

Our design idea is directly inspired by Old Street’s Tech City and integrates elements of public art, technology and innovation.

Technology and public realm are often seen as conflicting realities, as modern technology tends to isolate people rather than generating social interaction. With our design idea we want to challenge this stigma and use technology to enable social interaction.

The core of our idea will be familiar to any programmer, developer, hacker and school child. Like learning ‘Hola!’ or ‘Bonjour!’, “Hello, World!” is the first communication of a global programming language as well as an idea that aims to embody the tech heritage of ‘Silicon Roundabout’ while broadcasting London’s new public hub of technology. This idea will take the form of a large digital globe (15m in diameter), presenting content and interactive information, allowing the Old Street Iconic Gateway to connect with people and ideas from across the world.

We will create a stimulating and inclusive space where people from all walks of life can engage with digital media and technology by connecting to the digital globe via an app and interact with those worldwide.

The globe will be able to display a huge range of information including weather, news, travel information and free international broadcasts (e.g. royal wedding, World Cup, Olympics, etc). Adverts will be shown on the globe, thereby retaining advertising revenue. The local

community of start-ups and tech companies will be encouraged to take the lead in the development of programming and content, promoting collaboration and innovation.

The clerestory roof will be used as a plinth to frame the globe as it hangs overhead. The area under the globe will be landscaped with planting along the steps and roof, and its location will allow it to be viewed from different perspectives, including from the proposed terraced seating above the new underground entrance. The amphitheatre feature in the east side will also be an additional point for gathering and viewing.

In line with LB Islington’s commitment to Healthy Streets, the design includes greening, additional places to sit and rest, and an improved environment for cycle parking. Trees are strategically placed around the peninsula to mitigate the impact of pollution and noise while providing needed shelter. Space for market stalls is created to encourage new local business, support the local economy and allow a flexible use of space. New cycle parking is installed to enable cyclists to use the space and prevent vehicle entry to the peninsula.

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HELLO, WORLD!

TEAM

SustransFeras Fathallah Tim Sider Oli Gladstone Brian Madden

Lumenpulse GroupAndrew Pearce

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The immediate zone of influence, as illustrated runs along Old Street from St Lukes in the West to St Agnes Well in the East. This axis already provides a varied programme. Our proposal taps into the output of St.Luke’s, creative Agencies, such as disguise and creative collaborations as exemplified by Samuel Wilkinson and neuroscientist Beau Lotto’s Ommatidium.

Our armature for creative play will become surrounded, not by the pollution of 20th century vehicles, but by the rhythmic clicking of quiet frictionless machines. Voices, music and birdsong will be able to be heard along side new traffic. Locals, workers and tourists walking on fluid soles, cyclists gliding on dynamo driven cycles and almost silent ‘cell’ driven vehicles.

At the heart of a clearing in the urban forest stands a digital theatre.

The theatre is created by constructing a canopy over the proposed stepped seating area above the new station entrance.

The canopy serves as conduit for digital media to the speakers and screens that wrap the sides and underside of the canopy structure.

Seen from the North, South, East and West, the canopy is concealed by the surrounding planting of natural and ‘curious’ trees, before once again being revealed as you near the clearing.

Our proposal champions sustainable planting supported by local talent (energy) to its location (embodied energy). At the epicentre of our radial forest, the theatre communicates with creatives, agencies, production houses and audiences, local and global.

The ability of connective technology to build relationships between diverse clusters of people aligns with the fundamental purpose of theatre. The growing possibilities for connecting to audiences through digital technology will reshape the landscape of the Old Street area and have a lasting impact on the diversity of the area.

This theatre is an inclusive communication armature taking reference from over a 1000 years of the old street thorough fare. A legible dynamo at the centre of an incremental strategy. The initial injection of capital will establish the digital theatre armature, sowing the seed of enriched biodiversity (the radial forest) and attract cutting edge works that will resonate well beyond the location.

The success of the theatre to attract well funded installations will provide for the wider planting programme, through sponsorship of one or a cluster of tress. Our proposal is a continuation of the tree lined promenade of light, designed by Tonkin Liu, with a new planting program defined by our radial field, centred on the Canopy. Planting at GPS defined radial nodes which will be a rich mixture of native stock Trees, our Curious Trees and Digital Wells, capped by Mirrored discs.

The biodiversity platform created from the planting will reach across the boroughs, the local, the crafters, genders, cultures, animal flora and fauna. The icons are in the resonant energies of the areas renaissance. Purposeful clearings encourage spontaneous storytelling of all forms.

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TEAM

Spaced Out Kissit CoAndie Scott

SOWING THE SEED

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London’s development represents layers of interwoven life stories against changing times and technology. At its heart is the British creative and tech community, a mosaic of inventive cottage industries forming a critical part of the economy.

Modern cities are increasingly becoming polluted places where people feel increasing disconnected and isolated. Art, design and technology concepts within the fabric our cities need to address these wider societal issues. Old Street Common seeks to be both an engaging social space for the local community and a focal point of London’s creative and tech industries. Our multi layered public space seeks to engage the surrounding city, to become as much a green calming lung as an energetic creative art forum.

Sustainability and the environment are at the scheme’s core, it aims to create another green space for the city by stretching the green band from old street into the new peninsula. A series of strategically located planted embankments screen heavy traffic of the surrounding artery roads enabling the pedestrians to take over. Providing clear circulation zones for pedestrians and cyclists alike. The green islands with specifically selected plantations accompanied by air purification pods seek to combat noise and air pollution and create an accessible buffer zone from the surrounding city.

Reclaiming back the roundabout into a public realm is one of the key aims of the proposal. GPS tracking of pedestrians provide a series of interactive lines tracked across the plaza, a thought provoking reminder of how our daily paths intersect with others. The patterns itself will be painted in climatic and kinetic responsive paint enabling it to live and breathe with the rhythmic energy of the city. The patterns also delineate spaces that can be regularly changed and curated areas of public art.

The proposal seeks to harness and integrate the existing elements. The clerestory roof is covered in sedum grass and wild flowers with a cargo net stretched above it supported from the existing arches. This creates an elevated plaza for kids and adults alike without affecting the current roof. The digital screens themselves have been removed from the arch and relocated over the station entrance. The idea is to make the station the focal point of the plaza engaging externally with the surrounding roads and internally with the stepped auditorium. This will provide commercial advertising space yet at the same time a digital performance space.

The cottage pods will be prefabricated from recycled zero carbon materials. Bringing a human scale and community uses to the bold gesture of the plaza. Each node will integrate an algae powered air purifier and a digital art space. The spaces will provide completely flexible public, community and commercial uses. These will range from cycle storage with showers, art or recording studios with galleries spaces, concessions such as shops or cafes, business meeting rooms, mindful retreat spaces or teaching rooms.

Our strategic proposal is a mixture of high tech and low tech ideas to be completed been within a budget of circa £1 million.

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COMM.ON

TEAM

JaK Studio Ltd Seymour PowellCAR LtdJaM Management CollectConnectLight IQ

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The two new light weight retail / cafes and the development of new duplex retail units in the clerestory structure offer a further opportunity for rental income supporting the development of the site.

Three advertising towers replace the current advertising steel arches. The towers refer to the Victorian era billboards organized around a hierarchy of views derived from the different approaches to and past the site. This is further supported through the design of urban furniture which are merged with the landscape.

The proposal attempts to keep the overall approach simple within a controlled level of complexity; the surface pattern being the primary proposal, with simple insertions of advertising towers using defined external spaces as places with seating. The result maintained the eclectic mixture, but unifies the area under a single design concept.

The Old Street “Gateway” becomes an identity for the borough and the wider city through its unique character, a place a defined identity based on its landscape.

The proposal offers a unique environment / atmosphere for the new Old Street gateway, a proposal that uses placemaking to create a place of unique characteristic to position the site in the larger urban environment.

CONDITION

The current site is an eclectic collection of geometries of various scales and appearing haphazardly placed on the square. A large portion of the site is over the Old Street underground station and the brief restricts the proposal by keeping a number of these elements. The primary challenge of the site is in uniting the site into a single construct of public spaces with its own identity.

APPROACH

The site is organized with a singular landscape surface as an interconnectivity between the tree lined avenue and the 3 cross-road access points on the site, taking into account the retained structures on the site.

The design proposes the removal of the large advertising structure and its replacement by three new digital / screen billboard towers with number of billboard screens that more than doubles the advertisement surface area currently on site. The additional focused billboards would give an opportunity to support additional maintenance of the site.

PROPOSAL

The proposal follows the principle of place making and spatial identity. The landscape is ordered through the use of a surface pattern. This is a simple geometry based on English Victorian tile patterns, linking the site with the Victorian history of the site and some of the surrounding buildings. The site strategy is built around an idea of the landscape acting as the uniting factor for the site. Cutting the site into ribbons that are related to the existing and proposed elements of the site. This strategy merges the design of new advertising towers, retail spaces and landscape into a single whole.

Lightweight structures form retails spaces / cafes and advertising structures at strategic locations on the site. The structures use lightweight materials and tensile solutions to minimize impact on the underground. New retail spaces / cafe are used to activate the site and support the fragmented external spaces. Large glazing surfaces open up both new and existing volumes with solar shading where appropriate.

The existing clerestory massing over the shopping arcade is opened up on the ground floor level with large glazed openings allowing both added daylight and view connection from ground level to the gallery level below. The opening up of the clerestory structure for use as retail units is supported with direct stair access down to the gallery level for a two level retail unit from one to three in number.

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TEAM

Thor Architects Gudjon Thor Erlendsson Ertunc Hunkar

OLD STREET LANDSCAPE GATEWAY

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COST

Clerestory and existing stair access are altered, advertising structure removed and substation and distribution cabinets relocated into the subway, which we estimate to fall within the £1m budget.

Whilst external funding for the Hub is to be established from design, art, technology and education sources for example, the existing staircase which currently serves the roundabout from below will be reconfigured providing stepped and lift access to the hub above, which is an opportunity to omit currently planned secondary station access and relocate the proposed lift, potentially reducing current costs.

Structural loading to the new building is proposed to be independent to the clerestory and long term income is to be generated from room hire and events.

SITE APPRAISAL

Removal of the gyratory system and transforming the roundabout, changes the setting of the existing structures. Whilst technically fitting on the proposed peninsula, they were never designed to be part of a wider public realm and in their total, create awkward spaces that impede placemaking and access needed for public art and technology.

Examples of this are how the large advertising structure sits on a plinth originally constructed to support a flyover and how the clerestory and substation obstruct connectivity of the newly created spaces. The viability of good public space is also further eroded by the adjacency of the highway.

DESIGN CONCEPT

To establish an Iconic Gateway as a landmark building which addresses key connectivity and placemaking issues whilst acting as a backdrop to Art and Technology, accessible to all.

The Art and Technology Hub is a well-connected platform showcasing new design, art and technology which remodels the existing clerestory to maximise sightlines, connectivity and much needed public space for events.

VISION

To form an enhanced public space for people approaching from all directions, where digital media and technology can be engaged with by all, we propose to replace the advertising structure with a contemporary and iconic Art and

Technology Hub which uses architectural form to create new internal and external spaces. Formed of a sedum blanket, the roof provides sustainable drainage and CO2 mitigation whilst creating a visual amenity to the surrounding high rise buildings.

OPPORTUNITIES

As the Underground Station limits opportunities for extending the promenade of light, the Hub not only provides a destination and green roof, visually and physically terminating the promenade but also addresses an opportunity to engage with the retail area in St Agnes Well below, using a new lift and stair.

Interestingly, the clerestory space was originally conceived as a restaurant and this is an opportunity to re-envisage a singular event space connecting above and below ground.

The building façade is also an opportunity to relocate the lost advertising space within a more suitable site specific form, connecting inside and outside; using the façade as technological platform for evolving art and technology.

Connected to the subway, the Art and Technology Hub will retain footfall and overtime is envisaged to act as a catalyst to support the retail below and the diverse local economy above.

TEAM

Fereday Pollard Jan Kroes Eunice Lapeiro Paulo Mesquitela

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ART & TECHNOLOGY HUB

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POLICY

• Provision of secure cycle parking for the public is compliant with: Healthy Streets Agenda; Mayor’s Draft London Plan; Mayor’s Draft Transport Strategy.

• “In the future, TfL’s stations and stops will be designed for active and sustainable onward journeys. The healthy, sustainable choice must be the easiest option every time, particularly at places where people change between transport modes. This will require good quality, secure cycle parking at a level that meets current demand and provides for future growth.”

REVENUE

• TfL’s Liveable Neighbourhoods funding and cycle infrastructure funds could contribute to the cost of the stores.

• Private equity funding could materialise where it’s agreeable to charge for the parking.

• Media signage of more than double existing advertising footprint can raise revenue.

THE IDEA

A new public park and cafe, that integrates cycle storage towers.

SITUATION

TfL’s highway plans for Old Street offer a unique opportunity to improve the public realm and active travel, as well as giving a new identity to the Old Street interchange.

THE PROBLEMS

• Old Street is characterised by traffic. The centre of the roundabout is inaccessible, and the environment is challenging to pedestrians.

• The transport offer consists of Tube and Buses only, but resident technology and media companies have a high proportion of cyclists.

• The Old Street roundabout has a weak identity; the advertising hoarding dominates.

IDEAS

1. Define a new public park. Tiered concrete benches separate cars and create a protected garden. The existing structure is incorporated into a ‘hill’ with a café providing a focal point at the centre of the hill.

2. Integrate cycle storage into the hub, strengthening the interchange with tube and buses.

3. Create a strong new identity by making an Iconic Gateway with vertical towers, that provide digital media screens that double the saleable advertising area.

GREEN SPACE

• MacFarlane Associates have developed a planting scheme that reduces the amount of pollutants in the atmosphere, and thrive in an urban environment.

CYCLING DEMAND

• On-street parking in a 35-acre zone for just 416 bikes.

• Many older buildings have little or no cycle parking. Moorfields has 1,700 staff and zero cycle parking.

• A dozen buildings in the vicinity have a combined shortfall of c1,259 parking spaces if complying with the Mayor’s Draft London Plan.

• An already popular cycling destination will be vastly more attractive following installation of segregated cycle lanes, with each new trip requiring an additional place to park.

• Old Street is in TfL’s top 10% of busiest stations and has a combined tube & rail entry of 41,736 people a day.

SOLUTION

• Each Eco Cycle system securely stores 204 bikes with an average retrieval time of 13 seconds. The three-store hub will have a capacity for 612 bikes.

• Convenience of seeing availability and pre-booking spaces on an app, reducing the risk of making the journey by bike.

• Offers parking for visiting public; local residents & businesses; and cycle hire.

TEAM

Cove BurgessDaniel CoveKarolina GawlikMeng ZhangValerio Ciaccia

Eco Cycle Nick Knight

Pell FrischmannAndy Murray

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SILICON HILL

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HECT AIRE

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TEAM

Zaha Hadid ArchitectsShajay BhooshanMelodie LeungHenry LouthFederico Borello

Please see project description written on the next page.