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Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Neiheiser Argyros
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Ben Luxmoore, Jeff Moore, Luke Hayes, Charles Emerson
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Landscape Designers: Gross. Max., Gross Max
Text description provided by the architects. The Tide is a 5-kilometre network of public spaces and gardens embedded into the daily rhythms of Greenwich Peninsula. Both an elevated and at-grade walkway, with programming split across both levels, The Tide activates spaces above and below to provide a layered network of recreation, culture, and wellness. The Tide will stitch together diverse ecosystems, emerging neighbourhoods, and distinct cultural institutions, connecting north to south, east to west, centre to the periphery, and city to river. The Tide is both fast and slow. It is simultaneously a running track, a walking promenade, a series of quiet gardens, and a network of social and cultural hubs.
The Tide is conceived of as a series of elevated, landscaped islands where the public is invited to slow down, linger, and overlook the life of the Peninsula. Each island is distinct, defined by unique trees and planting, and by their surrounding views and sounds.
These elevated gardens are designed as clusters of structural supports that create elevated planter beds, containing soil and channelling both gravity loads and water down to the ground. The sculptural structure supporting The Tide gardens above also frames and shelters the path below, creating arched pavilions that mark thresholds and passages at the ground level public realm.
Location. Greenwich Peninsula is located in south-east London near Canary Wharf, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and is bound on three sides by a loop of the Thames River. A former industrial site with a rich history, it is an area quickly transforming. Although known mostly as the site of the O2 Arena today, it is an evolving community with plans for 15,000 new homes, a design district, and a large central park.