Mixed Use Development

Peckham, London

Client: Europan 6 Architectural Competition
Entry Date: March 2001

The Europan competition is a prestigious, regularly held open competition, which encourages young, design driven practices to make proposals for a choice of sites across Europe.

...the scheme rethinks the existing values and conventions of the edge conditions of our cities...

The Flaxworks' is a proposal for a whole new way of living and working. Essentially a mixed use development incorporating residential, commercial, leisure, and community based activities, the scheme rethinks the existing values and conventions of the edge conditions of our cities.

The brief, functions, urban design approach, and design were all derived out of the contemporary architectural investigative process of diagramming. This diagramming was specifically undertaken to explore and describe two key aspects; the activities of the complex, and the physical context of the complex.

Architecturally the design knits itself into the existing surrounding urban fabric by fracturing itself to form two distinct urban spaces that are threaded together by the street hugging yet permeable High Street accommodation. This fracture suggests an accommodating route through an otherwise potentially large impenetrable city block, whilst the two squares offer contrasting types of urban space. The proposal also looks beyond its boundaries to its social, physical, and political context, and particularly it's relationship to central London which is a mere 5km away.

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