CounterSpace

Counterspace is a proposal for an assertive and tough architecture for a tough industrial, yet ambivalent, site. The scale and aesthetic of the Docklands industrial history is interwoven with the scale of the housing rows beyond. The row character of the urban fabric is maintained but pulled apart and the ground is doubled to create green areas and play spaces in-between the rows and above the street-level community programmes. The housing units themselves are a rethinking and recombination of the elements of the rowhouse – stair, chimney, garden, stoop – in order that there is continuity but radical reuse and recontextualisation of the elements. The deep understanding and manipulation of the site at both an urban and an elemental scale, allows for the project’s meaning to emerge from the site. And through the experience of the project, an understanding of the greater context is achieved.