The London Borough of Waltham
Forest tasked the design team with
providing the facilities necessary
for opening the Walthamstow
Reservoirs site to free public access. This
would require pedestrian entrances and
bridges, a foot and cycle-path through the
site connecting to the wider Lea Valley,
signage and interpretation, and a small car
park.
FACT FILE
Architect: make
Structural engineer:
WSP UK Ltd
Steelwork
contractor:
William Hare
Main contractor:
Multiplex
Construction Europe
Client: London
Wall Place Limited
Partnership
An important part of the project was the
conversion of two disused infrastructure
buildings - the locally listed Engine House
and the Grade II-listed Coppermill Tower.
They were to be adapted into an exhibition
space, an education room, café, toilets, and a
viewing platform.
“The buildings were originally designed
for large machines, and were made up of
cellular brick boxes, largely disconnected. A
M E R I T SSDA 2018
series of steel gantries, stairs and lifts link the
rooms, mitigate their grand scale, mix the
activities and provide elevated viewpoints,”
explains Witherford Watson Mann Project
Architect William Mann.
Within the buildings, the steel structures
are said to recall the machines that once
occupied these voids, and temper the
infrastructural scale for the human body.
Summing up, the judges say the team
has successfully given a nod to the former
industrial heritage of the building through
the use of steel in many manifestations to
highlight wayfinding and new interventions
throughout this sensitive conversion.
NSC 37
October 18
Walkway
Bridges,
London Wall
Place
Walthamstow Wetlands
FACT FILE
Architects:
Witherford Watson
Mann,
Kinnear Landscape
Architects
Structural
engineer: Entuitive
Steelwork
contractor: Gorge
Fabrications Ltd
Main contractor:
Rooff Ltd
Client: London
Borough of
Waltham Forest
During the construction of the
London Wall Place (LWP)
development some of the
existing Barbican Highwalks
had to be removed as part of the demolition
and enabling works. These have now been
reinstated by stylish walkways fabricated in
weathering steel.
“For the LWP bridges the key challenge
was to deliver an elegant and slender solution
that responded to and complemented the
architecture of the development. Steel helped
us deliver this and enabled us to make the
bridges as shallow as possible,” says WSP
Director Stephen Jackson.
“Weathering steel was chosen for
the bridges to provide a form that
complemented, but also contrasted with, the
other materials used in the developed to set
them apart and give them their own identity.”
The footbridges comprise bridge deck
and parapets as integral elements made from
steel plate up to 100mm-thick in places. The
deck acts as a diaphragm structure to transfer
lateral loads back to the supports. Parapet
depths are a maximum 1,200mm high.
The pedestrian sides of the new walkways
are typically lined with a steel balustrade
topped with a wood handrail. Vertical
lighting strips providing consistent, even
lighting have been discreetly incorporated
into the balustrade’s depth at every 3m.
All six footbridges are suspended from
the new buildings, two utilising complex
cable stay and pylon supports connecting
into the City of London walkway system.
The judges say individually the six
bridges that form this walkway may not catch
the eye. However, even though structurally
different, through uniform language they
cleverly work as one. The weathered steel
gives a warmth, which combined with the
different structural forms, creates an urban
landscape that works with the surroundings
to produce lovely public spaces above and
below.
Both images: © Heini Schneebeli
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