Middlesex University Architecture & Design BA students spent 2 days surveying the Hackney Wick and Stratford areas of the Lower Lee Valley as part of their major year-long platform project on the theme of Boundaries:Edge. They will be researching and designing new schemes for waterfront sites and buildings, both re-use and new build.

Design is an important element in both Art & Humanities Informed Research as adopted by the Hydrocitizenship project. Design is one of the disciplinary domains of the Arts & Humanities Research Council who are funding the project, with Design a strategic AHRC research priority. This includes architectural, landscape and product/industrial design and history, with Co-Design a particular ‘highlight’ theme in relation to the Connected Communities programme.

In Hydro terms, much of our water resources and infrastructure is man-made and ‘engineered’, in our Lee Valley case study in particular this includes the 400 year old ‘New River’, Lee Navigation Canal, the system of Reservoirs that provide drinking water to Londoners - to the locks, dockside and utility buildings including Pumping Mills, Sewage Works and tunnels. Waterfront development has also been rediscovered in the post-industrial era with growth of residential developments along canal and riversides. In our Hackney Wick & Fish Island neighbourhoods this includes new ‘urban villages’ of housing, schools, clinics and other facilities, bringing new residents in close proximity to water for the first time. One issue our Community Partners are concerned with is the relationship of new dwellers and water/waste consumption - how behavioural change can be achieved in order to accept the recycling of grey and black water in houses and other buildings. This is only one of the co-designed themes we will be investigating through design thinking and approaches such as Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable (DESIS) which will be developed through community consultation and scenario building, design charrettes and visualisation.

Graeme Evans

To read more by Graeme visit his page on hydrocitizens.com

Last week, I went to the London 2012 Legacy Seminar Series London titled ‘Who is Legacy for locally?’ at the Legacy Development Corporation. 

The seminar aimed to examine who local communities are in the context of Olympic legacy. Drawing on recent research, e.g. Newham’s latest household panel survey, and policy thinking, the speakers considered evidence of what local residents want for themselves, what they think about the local area and how it is changing. The speakers were Dr Jane Kennedy from LB of Newham and Andrew Sissions from LB of Hackney.

Jane has introduced the main findings of the Newham Household Panel Survey-Wave 7 and Andrew explored the two main focuses of the borough: employment and education. Other than the main fact that we all know, there was no in-depth understanding of the reasons behind some of the issues and how to deal with them which is disappointing. It is fair to say that the audience expected more about how the process will follow two years after the Olympics especially with the changing resident profile in the neighborhood but even the Q&A session didn't help. 

Ozlem Edizel

To read more by Ozlem visit her page on Hydrocitizens.

Today, members of the Hydrocitizenship Lea Valley team (Graeme Evans Simon Read, Andrew Church, Neil Ravenscroft) met with the London Wildlife Trust (Dave Mooney, Ranger/Nature Reserve Manager) at the Walthamstow Reservoirs. A series of large (equivalent to half of Hampstead Health) water reservoirs, rivers/canals/brooks, filtration systems, old mill buildings/ pumping stations and recreational (fishing) sites. These are rich habitats (SSIs, RAMSAR etc.) which have remained largely inaccessible for the past century. The area is now part of a major redevelopment as 'Walthamstow Wetlands' by a partnership between the LWT (who manage the site), Thames Water (landlord and water utility provider) and LB Waltham Forest.

The project has recently been awarded £4+m from the Heritage Lottery (HLF) towards an £8m capital programme which will renovate disused buildings, sustainably replant and remediate water areas for community access.

More to follow from the team on this engagement..

For further details on the project:http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/pages/servicechild/walthamstow-wetlands.aspx

Graeme Evans

To read more by Graeme visit his page on hydrocitizens.com