HACKNEY CLT

Studio Shajay Bhooshan

Tutor Ariadna Lopez

Consultant Andy Watts

Team Jonatan Zisser, Yufan Xiao and Tianyun Li

Hackney CLT proposes an innovative urban transformation model that aims to achieve the ideal urban renewal. Starting in the context of post-pandemic London, the urban renewal processes in London and the neighbourhood of Hackney Wick was taken as a test site for the proposal.

We have chosen a former warehouse building (Oslo house), remnant of the previous industrial era of the neighbourhood to be our test case. The old infrastructure will be gradually transformed into a new lively vibrant Urban centre, through a new paradigm of architectural intervention. The latter consist of shared spaces for creations, workshops, preforming art rooms and halls, studios, and exhibition spaces. The building will have a digital twin that will function as ‘playing and planning’ arena; for people all around the globe who are curious to invest or simply visit virtually the new urban hub of Hackney Wick.

Creators are great urban transformers. Their synergy within upcoming neighbourhoods plays a big role in providing new interest and investment in underdeveloped urban zones. When eventually the neighbourhoods get transformed, the original residents must find more affordable housing solutions at the city outskirts. This displacement of people creates the need for more commuting, which, in turn, generates more pollution and leads to a never-ending cycle of urban sprawl and population displacement.

Our vision entails an economic model that will provide a continuous reward for initial risk takers. People will connect digitally to the Hackney CLT digital twin. There they will be able to bid for spaces and collaborate with their neighbours to share or trade spaces. Each action and contribution will be recorded in a digital ledger of spatial operations. Once a unit space is bought, the space can be customised to the user’s specific needs, using our library of architectural geometries that is constantly being updated and iterated. Once the space is customised and ready to be build, the fabrication information is sent automatically to the onsite micro-factory that gradually generates the new building. The whole sum of these operations concludes in an ever-evolving architectural apparatus that brings prosperity to the neighbourhood.