Stratford Waterfront gifts Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with a distinct new cultural attraction. The public realm will serve as an exciting and distinctive common ground, appealing to new audiences.

Stratford Waterfront is a distinctive new destination, which frames the River Lea and defines the edge of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The landscape establishes a cultural common ground, one designed to reach different audiences and offer up fresh educational and career opportunities in what was once one of London’s most deprived areas. For the institutions putting down new roots here, including the BBC, V&A, Sadler’s Wells and London College of Fashion, there is the excitement of new partnerships.

Much rests on the public realm’s ability to make local people feel this place is for them. So, shared spaces work hard to not only unify the different architecture, but to provide opportunity for chance exchange and informal events, as well as supporting cross-cultural curated activities.

Taking its cue from the river, a series of terraces gradually rise to provide gentle, inviting routes up from the Park, with an open ground floor acting as an extension of the public realm. Spaces are designed to vary, so as to welcome the widest possible range of users with a series of south-facing terraces changing in direction and varying in width, surface and enclosure to create an ideal spot for everyone. The terraces have a playful feel to appeal to families. More intimate spaces are defined by strong, colourful and biodiverse planting. Materials used in the Park are carried through to Stratford Waterfront, including chunky timber seating.

The topography is steep enough to suggest a mountainside, and designs were inspired by the drawings of 19th century naturalist and explorer, Alexander von Humboldt. Vegetation changes in colour and texture with height to alter the sensory character of the spaces. To create a beautiful and thriving landscape here, one which includes trees, is highly complex and required close work with irrigation specialists, amongst others.

“The public realm will be integral to the success of East Bank on a very challenging site, which brings an additional, different, and complementary experience to this edge of the Park. It is also critical ‘Common Ground’ that offers an open invitation to the community and facilitates the opportunity for the cultural institutions to reach out to them. I cannot wait to sit on the terraces!” Andrew Harland, Director and Stratford Waterfront Public Realm project director, LDA Design