Haggerston Wood

HM of London Urban Retreat: Haggerston Public Baths

+ HONOURABLE MENTION

London Urban Retreat: Haggerston Public Baths

[20008]

Haggerston Wood

Team

Name: Wes Lansford

Instagram: weslansfordarchitecture – Link

Nationality: American

Institution / Company: Wes Lansford Architecture

Name: Leonard Perez

Instagram: lenerrd – Link

Nationality: American

Institution / Company: Studio Melodico – Link

---

The Regents Canal winds through London, offering an opportunity for goods and people to flow while allowing pause at each basin, establishing a rhythm for experiencing the city. Haggerston Wood is imagined as an extension of the Canal, inviting people to flow through the building while providing points for pause, reflection, and transition.

An accessible path winds throughout the building, facilitating this rhythm of movement and stillness. Acting as an anchor, the Wood grows from the former swimming pool, providing an indoor wilderness open to everyone. The suspended path flows through the Wood, creating an alternate urban route while encouraging moments of pause; an offramp to the hill gives direct access to the Wood allowing people to experience the space as they choose. Perhaps one will use the path as part of their daily run, another may step off the path to enjoy lunch in the Wood, and yet another may use the path for access to the building’s retreat spaces (yoga, meditation, pop-up cafe, rooftop garden, reading/media space, cooking classes). At its core, our intervention aims to set up opportunities for movement and stillness while ultimately giving agency to the individual on what that actually means to them.

---

---

Jury Comments

– Josefine Fokdal

The connection with the nearby river is very well thought in this project and achieved throgh new entrance situations. The experinece connect to the urban fabric but also invites to connect with the building and oneself.