Shoreditch practice wins Hackney Wick contest

Studioshaw has won a competition to design a mixed-use building within the £140 million Wickside development in east LondonThe Shoreditch-based practice will create its 40-home scheme in Hackney Wick after coming top in the invitation contest.Wickside, masterplanned by south-east London architects BUJ, will provide 475 homes as well as a brewery, a foundry, shops, restaurants and art galleries.BUJ, in partnership with developer O’Shea and the London Legacy Development Corporation, ran the competition for the new residential and commercial block.Four unnamed practices were shortlisted to take part in a process, which included a mid-tender charrette with stakeholders and an interview with a jury.The brief called for a building ‘that combines extraordinary and joyful architecture with a lively atmosphere that is marketable to the people who will use it’.Studioshaw’s winning scheme consists of 40 dual-aspect homes above a gallery, artist studios, shops, a canoe and boating club and food and drink space.The practice said its concept was for the building to be a ‘counterpoint’ to the rich variety of architectural styles in the vicinity of the site.Its building features deeply inset balconies with solid panels and round concrete columns.A precast concrete façade has an exposed aggregate surface of varying finishes in a move to connect the building to the bridge approach below.A double-height gallery space is proposed at ground level, set behind a colonnade. On the south side of the building, adjacent to the canal towpath, will be a triple-height café and boathouse, also set behind a colonnade.O’Shea said the scheme was ‘a refreshing interpretation of the client brief’.