Stamford Village Part 1 Project 2009 Tim Coles Cardiff University | UK Surrounded by rugged housing estates, parkland, terraced housing and the Walthamstow marshes, Hackney’s Springfield Park, close to Stamford Hill, provides a vibrant context within which to explore the spatial qualities of green intervention.The proposed masterplan builds upon the patchwork of the site, with a strategy to strengthen existing elements while new functions are introduced, supported by specific housing typologies.From a conceptual stage, the project’s aim was to explore space through process cycles, which are interconnected to their spatial environment.A water cycle acts as the main driver throughout the site, linking the historic rowing and rugby clubs with a canal boat workshop, thermal bath interventions and a filtration reed bed. A biomass cycle supports the new functions, fed by a willow coppice plantation as well as urban farm and community allotment refuse.Navigating through the depths of the reed bed amongst thermal bath mists, passing biomass processes and experiencing allotments along an ‘orchard walkway’, routes through the scheme navigate a series of atmospheres, driven by the cycles.‘Stamford Village’ provides an infrastructure for sustainable growth within the diverse local community. Encouraging social interaction via the creation of new experiences and activities, initiating interest and use. The project is set in the Lea Valley of London which is strongly urban yet also engages with issues of the urban edge (Location: Springfield in the Borough of Hackney).The main aim was to produce a carefully resolved and imaginative proposal that integrates urban, social and cultural issues through designing spaces with low impact (“sustainability”) in an urban “Raum”. The site is located between the urban and the industrialised green belt of the Lea Valley.The design proposes a complex system of experiencing water cycles and nature in a multicultural urban context. People and their activities are becoming naturally integrated in this sustainable scheme. The idea of making territories as well as exploring them is the web where social interaction happens and it does this in a rather effortless way.The quality of small and big spaces and the refined programme, which is unified under the umbrella of a few headings, enables the design to serve a complex modern society who is in need to celebrate integration and wellbeing with our environment. Tutor(s) Mr Jacob Hotz-Hung