British Pavilion: Witherford Watson Mann

In the last part about the architects presenting their projects in the exhibition Home/Away in the British Pavilion in Venice you can see projects of Witherford Watson Mann.

Alisa Street Masterplan, Lea Valley, east London

A mile to the south of the Olympics site and to the north-east of Canary Wharf, Alisa Street is currently used for low-grade industrial production. The master plan builds upon recent infrastructure developments to reconnect the site with the local centres at Poplar and West Ham. The challenge of providing new industrial spaces mixed in with family residential accommodation has been met through the careful disposition of public spaces. Industrial workshops are accommodated around courtyards, and a mixture of houses and apartments define closes and gardens, opening out onto the banks of the tidal River Lea.

The Flemish region has recognised the importance of redressing the sprawl of piecemeal residential construction throughout the rural landscape. In Gistel, on the old sea coast near Oostende, the architects responded to this issue by intensifying an awkward back land site in the town centre. Thirteen apartments, designed to lifelong standards, are organised around the internal perimeter of the site, defining a new public court behind the seventeenth-century inn. The new public space is bordered by the cafe and apartments terraces; its enclosure tempered by a wide opening to the main street.