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Propagating a Green Corridor

Part 2 Project 2006
Richa Mukhia
 Architectural Association London | UK
The project tackles the integration of landscape and urban infrastructure in relation to the Thames Gateway Bridge and the East London Green Grid. The ambition being the exploitation of urban green spaces as more an entire system than an archipelago.
The proposed strategy for the extension of a green-space network, operates at various scales, creating a multi-layered habitat and a green solution to a multitude of political and physical problems.
A central theme investigated during the course of the project is that of architectural representation in the public realm. A more direct form of representation is proposed in order to open up the design process to public debate and participation.



Re-imagining the existing political, community and design networks, Richa’s project exploits the middle ground between the region’s most significant infrastructural proposal, the Thames Gateway Bridge and the landscape strategy for a Green Grid in East London promoted by the Greater London Authority. The proposal re-introduces the forgotten spaces of the public realm and the disenfranchised communities of the Gateway as the protagonists of new development. A new type of landscape infrastructure is realised that is able to visualise the potentials of the Green Grid to the public while allowing active participation in the creation of the same. Richa’s innovative work will be published in a forth coming publication on the Green Grid précised by the Major of London.

Mr Theo Lorenz, Mr Neil Davidson and Mr Peter Staub

2006
Propagating a green corridor
Thames Gateway- Two important strategies
Guerrilla Consultation- Evaluating the impact of the bridge on local communities
Addressing the public’s disinterest and general apathy towards the built environment
Critiquing the failings of current consultation practices, the proposal aims to develop a language of ‘direct representation’
The proposal is a strategy for the extension of a green corridor that can negotiate between the different political and physical concerns involved
Strategies outlined in a reconfigurable manual, tested against all relevant groups, from the GLA to anti-bridge protestors
Identifying 5 initial seeding sites
Phase A, Site 3, GUERRILLA TACTICS encourages the public to ask ‘what is the green grid?’ whilst the politicians do the same
Phase A, Site 3, GUERRILLA TACTICS simple interventions that directly represent the issues of concern and thus open up the debate surrounding the Green Grid to the public
Phase B, Site 4, GG TEST[LAB] a showcase, a slice of the Green Grid to be constructed on site, allowing public and planners to experience the potential of the green network.
Phase B, Site 4, GG TEST[LAB] promotes the potential of plants and connects the community to decision making processes; allows the public to become active participants in the extension of the Green Grid
Phase D, Site 2, GG ADAPTATION the final phase speculates at the potential growth and spread of the green network by 2012 (scheduled bridge opening)
Phase D, Site 2, GG ADAPTATION the streetscape is to become a ground for constant negotiation between car, public and planting
The streetscape is no longer viewed as defined hostile territories but as a valuable public space generated through a collaborative process
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