The Green Bridge

Location Mile End, London
Client London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Content 1,500m² Retail | Extended Parkland
Status Built

Awards
2001 RIBA Award, Winner
2000 Civic Trust Award, Commended

The Green Bridge was invented by us to overcome the conflict between Mile End Park and the traffic of the Mile End Road. Our idea of joining the two halves of Mile End Park with a piece of landscape is the major gesture in the redevelopment as a whole, highlighting the presence of the park at a major access point and establishing it as a true linear park. It was the key element of the regeneration proposals, which successfully obtained Millennium Commission funding. The urban context of Mile End Road is also enhanced.

The neighbouring fragmented façades are reunited by the establishment of the new retail frontages, which help to contain and revitalise the intensity of a major road intersection previously lost in the under-used open spaces on either side.

The soffit of the bridge has been designed as a curved surface sloping up towards the edges. This is in order to lighten and reduce the impact of the width of the bridge over the space underneath.

The brilliance of the urban design concept is matched by its financial public responsibility. The substantial commercial rents of the retail and restaurants provide beneficial income for the maintenance of the park.

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