GROUND//ENVELOPE//Neo-Learning Community Spaces

The directed focus of this project began with examining the context within the given site. Greenwich peninsula has been a target for development  over the last decade.

The construction of the Millennium Dome to celebrate the new era was at first met with great enthusiasm. The building boasted a wide range of family and tourist orientated  functions under its housed ‘Millennium Experience’ which served as a science and nature exhibition. This project was abandoned however and only after a few years, re-franchised as the O2 Arena, to which today it stands as an entertainment hub, providing, restaurants, clubs a cinema and entertainment stadium. 

The extent of development to the area has also included a university college, recreational and sports clubs, businesses as well as a large modern housing sector. 

The design of the developments master plan has solved the areas effective isolation from the surrounding towns, by providing  diverse transport links and parking spaces.

One question I would like to ask, is whether the development of this area can serve as a typical example and reflection of society over the last decade. Symbolised first by the socially responsible intentions of the public exposition which failed at the turn of the millennium, only to be replaced by a privately funded, and economically successful entertainment complex.

Furthermore the site mirrors the decades social advancement over the river, with Canary Wharf, Londons economic giant hub, and the iconic beacon of a decade which has fundamentally ended in crisis.

Never-the-less the site does exhibit great links with the city centre, and is a potential site for both technologically and socially innovative projects to be designed.