Hackney Wick sits between the new Olympic Park and Victoria Park, and is a key part of the Olympic Fringe Programme. With the opening of the new Queen Elizabeth Park in 2013 after the games, Hackney Wick will be opened up with new connections eastwards through the Park and to the newly developed Stratford. Design for London’s Olympic Legacy team has designed and developed a series of projects in Hackney Wick and Fish Island (HWFI) which will ensure that visitors and local communities in Hackney and Tower Hamlets gain maximum benefit from the opportunities of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the future Olympic Legacy developments.

Hackney Wick is currently characterised by a unique mix of industry and artists that results in a cultural richness that must inform and play a central part in the future evolution of the vision for HWFI in the creation of a new local town centre. Design for London’s Olympic Team are working on many levels with local stakeholders and investors to ensure this period of transition, pre and post games, is well managed. Critically HWFI must provide a key role in connecting the communities of Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

Design for London are funding and clienting a series of initiatives in the area including a programme of public realm works and the creation of a cultural hub. A team led by Muf architecture/art and including J+L Gibbons have been commissioned to develop and carry out the design and delivery of a series of projects across Hackney Wick and Fish Island. The work focuses on a bottom-up approach that has developed with the local communities including residents and businesses a series of interventions that will transform the public realm. The projects have been developed alongside an audit of community facilities in the area and ‘Made in’, a document that compiles all local makers, artists and businesses and build on a mapping study that was completed in July 2009 that was the result of spending time in the area, meeting and interviewing people whose businesses were based there and mapping their findings. The study provided a fascinating snapshot of the huge scale of culture and art activities now established in the area –for example 610 artists’ studios were counted, possibly the largest cluster of artists in Europe today. For more information see.

The public realm additions are starting on site in February 2011 and include ‘Street interrupted’ where an existing road is closed off and transformed into a public space. A large mature tree is planted in the middle of the road and a collection of street furniture is installed. A new terrace to the existing café and gallery is extended and resurfaced using terrazzo made from an aggregate sourced from the neighbouring McGraths yard.

At Mabley Green, two undercroft spaces are repurposed into event spaces. The provision of basic infrastructure including water, power and lighting and the resurfacing of the ground plane allows a series of exciting possibilities from the docking of a floating cinema for a large crowd to the provision of facilities and storage for tools for local community gardening groups.

All the projects within this suite fit within three main themes: Green infrastructure, the greening of the ruderal spaces along the edge of the A12 by structural tree planting, Ways within(in)- the improvement of routes that link the surrounding communities to the new Park, Olympic Edge – the creation of moments along the canalside on the edge of the Olympic site that set up a dialogue with the Games and the Park they sit within.

This work sits alongside a series of other public realm works being carried out by partner organisations including the London Borough of Hackney and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation.

Design for London have an ongoing role as part of the client team for the masterplanning work for this area, taking a lead role on design issues and facilitating the interface with the Olympic Legacy masterplan at the Olympic Park Legacy Company. Design for London also play a role providing design advice on all development proposals in HWFI to the LTGDC and to local authorities.

Partners: London Development Agency, London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney, London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, Olympic Park Legacy Company, Olympic Development Agency, Transport for London, British Waterways, English Heritage, Arts Council, local business associations and community groups