Studio Egret West, worked on a scheme for the last four phases of Ralph Erskine’s Greenwich Millennium Village in London. Our approach was to evolve a sustainable, affordable, aspirational and acoustically resolved community.
Our role in reconfiguring the masterplan was not just to overcome the acoustic issues from the adjacent aggregate works, but also to add value to all aspects of the masterplan. Whilst acting as custodians of the original vision; sustaining the values of the community that has already been bought in and creating new value for the next generation of community soon to arrive.
Our starting point was to learn from Ralph Erskine’s original masterplan and what has been built so far, both positive and negative. We sought to add the missing layers that would transfom GMV from pioneering experiment to real place. We suggested a more contained village green with increased value to the properties alongside and more active frontage for park related commercial and community use; transforming the parkway “distributor” road into a safe and pedestrian friendly local road edging the park – “The Boardwalk”.
We structured and shaped the phases as “acoustic gloves” to shield as many properties as possible from surrounding noise; and each time delivering a legible micro-community of up to 500 homes. We introduced two additional fingers of landscape that not only add to the biodiversity deeper into the site but add to the aspect and setting of each and every home.
