White city

Located between the city centre and Heathrow Airport, just outside the congestion charge zone, the site forms the most Western of all development locations, the last and currently the missing link in a chain of developments that encircle central London. At present, the area is a vacant strip of land: a 43 acre breach in the urban fabric. It borders the divide between some of the wealthiest areas in London and some of London's most notorious and deprived housing estates. Hinging between the two extremes, the site has the potential to mediate the divide.

Long left underdeveloped, White City is mostly known as the geographical home of the BBC TV centre and Wormwood Scrubs prison. However, the site holds much potential for better utilisation of its environs and successful urban regeneration as well as many unique opportunities to renew the uniqueness of White City, that in the past was formed by Olympic Games and large scale international exhibitions.

Currently the site is under utilised and isolated from its surrounding advantages – seemingly cut-off by the very infrastructure that should generate urban connections. The masterplan is aiming at overcoming these barriers by making better use of the A40 and the London Underground's Hammersmith and City and Central Lines that all intersect the site.

Apart from the infrastructure the adjacent BBC Media Village and BBC TV centre lend vibrant media culture, the White City Shopping and Leisure Scheme stimulates local economy. Numerous neighbourhood parks and sports centres as well as the Wormwood Scrubs provide ample recreational opportunities.

It is an opportunity to reanimate a currently neglected and under utilised site but as an exciting forum for rethinking the notion of the masterplan. The plan frees the site from its barriers and creates links between the surrounding urban clusters. The design team intends to take a critical investigative approach to the local setting and interest groups through an intense consultative process to form a considered approach to contemporary London.

The White City landowners comprise the BBC with Land Securities, Marks & Spencer, Lattice Group Pension Scheme and Morley Fund Management with Helical Bar. They have joined together to masterplan a comprehensive redevelopment of their landholdings. Helical Bar has been appointed as project coordinator.

credits

Architects : OMA France (Clément Blanchet)
Client : Whitecity landowners
Nature of the operation : Competition
Realised in : 2004
Site : London, UK
Program : Masterplan
Budget : NC

team composition

Engineer : Arup
Landscape Architect : Wirtz International N.V.
Environmental, Transport, Civil Engineer : Arup
Employment, Regeneration, Sustainability, Planner : Arup
Public Consultation Facilitator : Good Relations