RETHINKING TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD: A NEW DATUM LINE FOR THE CITY

Image: Stefan Laxness, 2014.
Architectural research, 2014.
In light of the Crossrail engineering works taking place in central London, the project sets out to create a new permeable urban typology that could reinstate the dynamism that is otherwise being pushed out of the centre of the city. Taking advantage of the excavation of the infrastructural works on site, the project claims and appropriates the implemented civil engineering methods in order to generate a new set of spaces defined vertically and horizontally by the revealed retention and structural systems and the exposed construction phases. A new set of secondary, publicly accessible courtyards begin to emerge, reconnecting Tottenham Court Road to the surrounding network of London’s mewses, alleyways and service ways. The new spaces are destined to be used by productive industries and activities relevant to Central London’s legacy as a creative hub.