Natural light floods the track through the ceiling panels of the Velodrome and this is one of several sustainable features that along with the elegant, functional design helped put it onto the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist in 2011. It impresses still and as you can go inside to sit in the viewing gallery you can visit, whether a cyclist or not, just to experience the architecture.
Matchbox cars were produced in the Lesney building along Eastway until it closed in the 1980’s. The legendary ‘fridge mountain’ was cleared in 2007 to make way for the Olympic Park. These signs coincided with the 2012 Games and represented not just the lost industries of Hackney Wick but also the connections of memory and place.
Nelson House dates from the early 18th century and is London’s only surviving example of a type of Georgian property built for prosperous shipyard owners. This view, from within Russia Dock Woodland, is back far enough to better reveal the parapet roof and octagonal cupola. The house is heritage to Rotherhithe’s ship-building past and was listed in 1949.
Great Arthur House (1956) is the sixteen storey residential block on the Golden Lane Estate with distinctive yellow panels all of which were renewed during a refurbishment in 2014 to replace the curtain wall. The building is Grade II listed and a fine example of the early work of Chamberlin Powell and Bon who, after designing Golden Lane, went on to complete the nearby Barbican Estate. I’ve just added a new architecture photo walk that explores the influential ideas of these two estates to my Photowalks page.
“The friezes helped us to express some of the paradoxes involved in making a piece of city out of a transient festival event” Niall Mclaughlin Architects.
Digital scans of the Parthenon Stones were cast as concrete panels for the exterior of Saddlers House and show athletes getting ready for a festival. The Athletes’ Village fades somewhat into memory as East Village develops and so the design statement of this housing block seems ever more provocative and interesting.
