Thamesmead Green and Blue Strategy / Living in the Landscape

Peabody, one of London’s oldest and largest housing providers, appointed a consortium headed by LDA Design, including Project Orange, to set out a landscape-led vision for the regeneration of Thamesmead in South East London. The resulting Landscape and Green Infrastructure Strategy sought to transform of Thamesmead’s waterspace, landscape and public realm, to turn the area into one of London’s most sustainable and welcoming places to live.

The vision rests on six tenets for life in Thamesmead in 2050: that Thamesmead will be a place of choices; that life is close to nature; that connectivity will be a game changer; that, here, inclusion counts for a great deal; that Thamesmead will be resilient to climate breakdown as well as well  managed and cared for. The vision plants a flag for green space, revealing how Thamesmead will look and feel safe and inviting.

Our input revolved around speculating and remaking many of the existing conditions into new kinds of urban places including the repurposing of a concrete storm drain into a sunken linear ecological recreation park, a generous Thames Path making links to the foreshore and transforming housing neighbourhoods from grey to green.