LDA Design's inclusive public realm at newly opened Sadler's Wells East

Image: courtesy of Scott Carroll/LDA Design

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Scott Carroll from LDA Design will be participating in our 'Cultural Cities' forum this March. He has been leading the work on Sadler's Wells East place-making.

His professional life as a landscape architect started out with visionary Urban Renaissance projects working with Will Alsop, through to winning the international Peoples’ Playground Competition that re-imagined Blackpool’s Seafront.

More recently he has been leading the design of public realm and roofscapes for Stratford Waterfront, East Bank, London’s largest cultural investment since the Festival of Britain and Southbank. Located on the edge of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the project creates new outposts for Sadler’s Wells, University of the Arts London’s London College of Fashion, V&A East and and new music recording and rehearsal studios for the BBC.

He has also been working with Great Ormond Street Hospital to establish a new standard for the UK’s city hospital streets by transforming the polluted street adjacent to the hospital into a safer, healthier, child-friendly place.

LDA Design has been speaking about its work at the Sadler's Wells East project:

'The curtain has lifted on Sadler’s Wells East, a proud moment for all those helping to shape East Bank – London’s exciting new cultural and education quarter in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

'The launch performance was Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu’s ‘Our Mighty Groove’ featuring a community cast from east London alongside professionals from Uchenna Dance.

'A cultural pull east is well underway, and with this comes fresh chances for local people. The Mayor of London has called Sadler’s Wells East a “game-changer for dance, providing inspiration and opportunities for performers and people across the capital”. The opening season will champion local artists alongside some of the best the UK has to offer.

'LDA Design has created a flexible and hardworking public realm and landscape, including two rooftop terraces where the dancers can relax and enjoy the fantastic views. The terraces also make for great events spaces.

'O’Donnell + Tuomey’s Sadler’s Wells East is a handsome, Venetian brick building with a saw-tooth roofline, reflecting east London’s industrial heritage. LDA has partnered with them to ensure landscape and life colonises the building’s fabric, bringing seasonal colour, motion and lightness.

'As LDA Design director and project lead, Scott Carroll, explains:

“We’ve been working with Sadler’s Wells and O’Donnell + Tuomey for eight years, helping to make spaces inclusive and to create that vital connection between inside and out. The foyer, for example, has been designed as an inviting living room with a seamless connection to the surrounding public realm and Park beyond. The transparency of the building’s frontage means people can see in to ‘The Dance Floor’; a dance space where community groups and artists will be able to rehearse and perform.

“The sign above the door says, ‘You are welcome’ and that’s the principle that has guided this scheme from beginning to end.”