Little Venice Tower

A proposal for a tower sitting at a small island in Little Venice, Maida Vale London, minutes away from Paddington Train station. The tower sits at the point where Paddington Basin stems off from Regents Canal in West London.

Insipration

Every architectural project starts with an idea. Sometimes, ideas can come from a conversation with clients, colleagues, friends, inspiration, sketches, or from an architectural competition brief. In this case the idea stemmed from my daily commute. Prior to having to work from home for the past year, I have been cycling for over 5 years to the office in central London.

IMG_20210223_154026+%281%29.jpg

I passed every day through Regents Canal, past an area called Little Venice, and I always imagined how wonderful it would be to have some sort of observation tower in the island in the middle of the water.

Context

Paddington Basin, just next door to Little Venice is a unique place within London, as the architectural fabric is organised around the canal instead of around a major street. There many other developments adjacent to the canal that prioritise the water, yet most are in East London. Paddington Basin a fairly new neighbourhood, as it continues to be transformed from industrial to residential and office neighbourhood. It's a vibrant place, quiet without traffic (except for the overhead motorway) and has a unique urban vibe, where on nice days, the restaurants and pubs are packed outside, well outside their boundaries.

Little Venice is a little different. It's in the heart of Maida Vale, and although a 5 minute walk from Paddington Basin, it has a strong and historic Georgian character. The path adjacent to the canal where I cycle is well used to connect Maida Vale to Paddington Train Station by commuters, tourists, and cyclists.

diagram01.jpg

Idea

So, could the two neighbourhoods feel a little more connected? That's where the idea for the tower comes from. Imagine being in the middle of the water, surrounded by Georgian terrace houses and post war social blocks, and at the same time, being able to look past the neighbourhood into a different world just next door. And, what if the tower, represents new aesthetics and construction methods represent the nice things to come from modern construction methods. The positioning of the tower in the middle of the water is not threating to the beautiful historic urban fabric, and instead serves as a beam highlighting the space around the tower and the strong street edges around the sides of Little Venice.

The Project

img04b-processed.jpg

To complement the tower, a new bridge and a small cafe are constructed to connect the tower to the mainland on a edge that's the least travelled out of the three sides of Little Venice. It is also important introduce a place where people can sit and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.

The stark contrast between the tower, the open expanse of water in which the tower sits, and the adjacent Maida Vale streets would make this area an even more popular destination for out-of-towners and for movie sets.

The tower is composed of natural and synthetic resin-cast fibres that portray both arts and crafts that relate to the area's historical character and new and innovative construction methods that combine computer fabrication, and computer aided assembly instructions. The fibres are woven and bent into shape, and there's ample opportunity to introduce planters that hang down from different parts of the tower. The architecture has the potential to become a habitat for the area's bird and flourishing bat population.

A wooden stair sits in the middle of the tower that helps act as a balancing beam for the structure while it is at the same time supported by the rest of the structure. The stair is long, narrow and circular, allowing a few to travel, to experience being inside of a vertical woven environment. At the upper end of the stair, users can observe London through thresholds generated by the tower. A new vantage point is born that also allows a new perception of the unique new character of Paddington Basin and the Georgian and Victorian surrounding neighbourhoods through a modern camera obscura.

 Project evolution

The intention behind the project has always been to generate a tower with a narrow spiral stair. However, the tower’s design has evolved, with the intent always being to create new breath through the architecture for the area, add observation area, and create a new habitat for the local bird and bat population.

Below are the iterative design proposals prior to having settled on the tower’s design.

 Making of process

If you are interested to find out how the final image was generated, click here to find out more.

Previous
Previous

Forest House

Next
Next

Tower 01