BLUEPRINTISSUE

292 BLUEPRINTJuly 2010 £4.99

THE LEADING MAGAZINE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

•JU

LY2010

•£4.99

BEYOND2012

•MARK

WEBBER

•RIN

TALAEGGERTSSON

•CASEYFIERRO

•CECIL

BALMON

D•JEAN

ETTEBARN

ES•SOU

FUJIM

OTO/RURAL

STUDIO/H

ELENAN

DHARD/STU

DIOMUMBAI/VAZIO

•YII

•TOM

DIXON•KASPER

SALTO•NACH

OCARBON

ELL•ELI

BOWES

LONDON'S MOSTAMBITIOUSMASTER PLAN

CASEYFIERROJEANETTE BARNESCECIL BALMOND

PLUS LONDON FESTIVAL OF ARCHITECTUREAND THE BEST OF MILAN SALONI

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CASEYFIERROPOPLAR

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AN AMBITIOUS 20-YEAR PLAN TORECONNECT THE DISPARATE POCKETS IN THE

EAST-LONDON BOROUGH HAS BEEN THE FRUITOF FIVE YEARS’ RESEARCH BY THE YOUNGARCHITECTURE PRACTICE. CONSIDERING

THE LONG-TERM IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENTAND PRIORITISING SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

OF RESIDENTS IN THE PROCESS, CASEYFIERROHAS DEVISED A MASTER PLAN FOR

BEYOND 2012. PETER KELLY REPORTS

Caseyfierro’s vivid graphicstyle is an importantpart of its communicationfor the master plan

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Reshaping Poplar isn’t your typical masterplan. Caseyfierro’s extensive and long-termproposal for the area of East Londonsandwiched between the StratfordLondon Olympic site to the north andthe high-rise commercial district CanaryWharf to the south, it is a montageof vibrant colours, legible maps, andcoherent diagrams. There are evocativedepictions of specific urban areas, yet theyeschew the unconvincing visual clichesof other proposals on a similar scale.

The graphic language of the master planmight seem a superficial reason to laud thework of young, London-based architects.Yet it is not just an indicator of the clarityof the architects’ vision in reforming thelabyrinthine street plan and housingprovision of the area, but a fundamentalpart of the project. Directors Michael Caseyand Victoria Fierro, has realised thatcommunication is not the endpointof an urban plan, but the foundation.

The architect’s involvement withthe Reshaping Poplar proposal had smallbeginnings. Invited by the social landlord,Poplar Harca, to look at improving anddeveloping the green space between twobuildings, Caseyfierro soon realised thatthe problem was the organization of thearea as a whole. ‘The more we looked intothe project, the more we talked to residentsand asked if they’d thought about the issueof housing as a whole,’ says Casey. Thanksto the unusual ratio of land ownershipin the area, there was a clear opportunityto do something much more extensive.

Poplar Harca (which stands for Housing

and Regeneration Community Association)is a non-profit organization, which ownsand manages around 8,500 homes. Theseproperties were transferred from the LondonBorough of Tower Hamlets between 1998and 2009. Working in tandem with LeasideRegeneration, which was established byTower Hamlets at the same time, its statedrole is to bring about the social, urban andeconomic regeneration of the Poplar area,including affordable housing: it owns around30 per cent of the area, which amounts toabout five hectares. Rarely has a housingassociation been the owner of such a largeamount of land in such a concentratedlocation. And it is also unusual for such anorganisation to be so closely involved in thecomprehensive regeneration of a deprivedinner-London area. ‘The opportunity throughall this land ownership is to put in all themissing elements,’ says Casey.

Reshaping Poplar is a proposal thatprovides a framework for redevelopmentof the area over the course of the next20 years: in terms of realistic, ambitiousplanning it puts the London Olympic legacyproposals to shame. Offering a bold approachto transforming rundown estates througha mixture of refurbishment and renewal,it is the result of nearly five years’ work,combining the efforts of Poplar Harca,Leaside Regeneration and the local authorityof Tower Hamlets.

‘The residents had to buy in to it,’says Fierro, ‘no-one was going to doanything unless they did, and that’s veryrare.’ This imperative played to Caseyfierro’sconsiderable strength as communicators.

Above: The areaunder considerationby Caseyfierro is almostidentical in size to theOlympic site immediatelyto the north

Top right: A still froman animated film madeby Caseyfierro to depictits vision of safer streetsfor Poplar

Ω

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Left: The model of Poplarmade by Caseyfierro.Different coloureddetachable modelsdepict real, planned andpossible developmentsin the area

Below: The organicappearance of thearchitect’s visualisationsconvey its idea of Poplaras a coherent ‘body’of connected villages

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Above: Caseyfierro’smore detailed masterplan for the Aberfeldyneighbourhood. Itinvolves both demolitionand refurbishment tocreate a more diversetenure mix

//RESIDENTS HAVE BEENBROUGHT INTO EVERY STAGEOF THE PROCESS, WITHCASEYFIERRO PRESENTINGA VARIETY OF OPTIONS ANDWIDER POSSIBILITIES ANDIMPLICATIONS FOR THE AREA//

At every stage, the residents have beenbrought into the process, with Caseyfierropresenting a variety of options andexplaining the wide possibilities andimplications for the area. ‘Many of themwere unaware just how much of the landin the area is owned by the residents, andtherefore what could be achieved,’ saysCasey. The architects created a huge modelof Poplar, with detachable foam modelsof all the existing buildings, as well asCaseyfierro’s proposals for redevelopmentand other private construction projectsthat the architects had identified. Residentswere encouraged to experiment with themassing of the proposals, exploring theirown suggestions on the scheme.

According to the architects, the key tocreating a realistic plan for the area involvedgetting to grips with the mathematics. Thismeant looking at the basics, understandingthe nature and economics of ownership, anda realistic assessment of the need for profitin any housing development. To make anyredevelopment work, any single residencethat gets knocked down has to be replacedby three. This meant replacing a densityof around 250 inhabitants per hectare with750. ‘The maths isn’t architecture, but it is

something that you have to do in order tofind the opportunities for architecture. It’slike playing chess – you have to find theright moment to make your move.’ Theymade three proposals, of varying ambition,which considered linking the surroundingestates, providing more housing and allowingfor a consistent development of new areas.It was the more ambitious approach thatcaught the residents’ imagination.

The future development of Poplaris going to be heavily influenced by thegrowth of Canary Wharf and the Olympictransformation of Stratford. In fact, thearea is almost identical in size to the 2012Olympic Site: Paul Brickell of LeasideRegeneration describes Poplar as being1.41 minutes from the Olympic site,a figure based on Sebastian Coe’s best timefor running 800m. Yet the complexity ofits problems and the need for a considered,long-term plan make for a more challengingproposition. Poplar, for the most part,consists of disconnected estates, which arenear impossible to navigate in a car andhardly less confusing on foot. It is dividedby two major commuter roads, the A12 andA13, which cut through the area and havefew convenient crossing points.

In some ways, it is no stranger toambitious propositions: as part of the 1951Festival of Britain, it was the site of thepioneering Lansbury Estate. There are alsothree vast housing estates – Balfron Tower,Carradale House and Glenkerry House –designed by Ernö Goldfinger. Poplar is alsothe location of the Robin Hood Estate, thetroubles of which are well documented. Yetit is the disjointed streetplan, and self-contained layout of the more recent low-risehousing project that Caseyfierro hasidentified as the real source of the area’sproblem. Its proposal reimagines the estatesas small, interconnected villages, wherevaried housing-block types can provide morefulsome green spaces. Providing bridges andfootpaths that overcome the divisive roadlayout is also essential. The overall vision ofPoplar as a single, connected ‘body’ can beclearly read in the organic style of thearchitects’ visualisations.

The overall area is divided in the planinto smaller areas for more specific proposal:some are being handed to developers, whilein others architects are being brought onboard directly by Poplar Harca. Caseyfierro isworking on a detailed plan for the Aberfeldyneighbourhood, which it is approaching

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Above: Caseyfierro’svision for Aberfeldywith a mix of high-end,low-rise developmentsthat allow for moreopen spaces

with characteristic rigour and livelyvisualisations. According to Brickell, it islikely that the architects will be heavilyinvolved in future developments in the area.

The situation in Poplar is made moreproblematic by the lack of retail outletsand other civic amenities. Residents haveto make long trips to the nearestsupermarket, part of Caseyfierro’s extensiveresearch process involved the plotting ofexisting civic facilities and identifying areasthat lack sufficient provision. Planning for atleast the next 20 years, Reshaping Poplarconsiders the integrated creation of improvededucation and health facilities, as welladdressing the introduction of new openspace, leisure and community facilities, andrecommending additional infrastructure.

Not all of these, of course, fall under theremit of Poplar Harca, Leaside Regenerationor Caseyfierro. Yet the proposition they havejointly put forward puts the onus on thelocal authority to invest further in the area,and seize these opportunities. It is one of themore impressive facets of the plan that itgoes well beyond a limited parochialviewpoint and considers how Poplarconnects with London as a whole.

Interestingly, considering they have

created such a coherent and consideredproposal, Casey and Fierro prefer not to callthe Reshaping Poplar proposition a masterplan. ‘It sounds too dictatorial,’ says Casey.This is partly down to the pragmatism andcollegiate approach of the architects. It mightalso have something to do with the relativeyouth of the practice, which was onlyestablished in 2006: they are not in theposition of established architects who canwin through on force of reputation. This isnot the first major London project that thearchitects have worked on, though. MichaelCasey and Victoria Fierro were both seniorarchitects at Herzog and de Meuron (Caseywas a director at the London office) andworked together on the new extension toTate Modern. Yet it remains a small practiceand the one completed project is a studiofor designer Jasper Morrison.

Working on a project at the scale ofPoplar, has required the involvement andsupport of many different bodies and thearchitects and developers have been skillfuland continually taking their requirementsinto account. Reshaping Poplar feeds intoan existing, extensive programme by PoplarHarca for housing stock refurbishment. Ithas also taken into account the wider

planning aspirations of current Mayorof London Boris Johnson, the plans put inplace by his predecessor Ken Livingstone,as well as the specific targets of the localauthority. The Tower Hamlets 2020Community Plan, which is being developedby the Tower Hamlets partnership led by theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets, has beena key influence in the proposal, as has TheLower Lea Valley Opportunity Area PlanningFramework document of 2007. By 2016the London Plan requires Tower Hamletsto provide 52,200 additional homes: PoplarHarca claims that the Reshaping Poplarplan could achieve 21,860 in Poplar alone.

Of course all master plans are at themercy of economics, and it is difficult topredict what will happen in the coming fiveyears, let alone two decades. Targets andpriorities shift, and a plan at this scale willalways be subject to change. Yet Caseyfierro’sability to identify the pragmaticfundamentals of planning, and communicatethem in a way that engenders enthusiasmamong residents, developers and planningauthorities does give one hope for thefuture of Poplar. It also marks them outas architects who may achieve great thingsin the near future .