Housing Crisis

We sought to create a new housing typology that would exist on top the overground rail system in London. We calculated that building 10 stories of housing on top of the Overgound in London would generate over 1 million housing units for the city.

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Gentrification is defined as the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. This process has become so notorious in the Shoreditch area of London that the term Shoreditchification was coined.

Over time, a "bad" neighborhoods is converted into a desirable area where the housing prices in that area are increased to a point where only the middle and upper classes can afford it. This drives out young creatives, who in general cannot afford expensive housing, and thus are forced to move into "bad" neighborhoods, which restarts the gentrification process.

The effect of gentrification can clearly be seen from this image taken from Google Street view in 2012 to a photo that I took of the same view in 2016. The city benefits from this beautification because it attracts people with higher income and therefore increases the city's tax revenues. However, this has a negative impact on the culture of the area because it prevents people, who make up the identity of the area, from staying there and forces them to move out to find more affordable housing.

In this area of Shoreditch, there is a lack of housing, as seen in this plan of the spaces above the commercial level. Therefore, we speculated the possibility to use the space above the overground train infrastructure to create more affordable housing.

Housing Typology Investigation

We first investigated possible housing typologies that could be built above our site.

Our first typology stems from Reyner Banham's "Megastructure," in which he speculates the construction of dense urban structures as a way to address the housing crisis of the 1960s. However, this created a mundane design that only had residential programs and nothing else. It wouldn't attract the public to go up into this new space, and like many other brutalist projects, it would receive mixed opinions about the overall design.

Our second typology prioritizes the creation of open public spaces on the main level of the structure. However, this encompassed too much of the site and would severely reduce the amount of daylight able to penetrate down to the street level.

Our third typology focused on creating a continuous circulation that was legible to the public. We felt that this was successful in creating a appearance that would attract users but it also had a lack of variation and flexibility in the spaces above.

Ultimately, we took aspects from each study to create our final typology.

The "New Ground" for Shoreditch

This new housing typology promotes cultural diversity with the new pedestrian street level connecting the public programs, while the various housing types creates a diverse residential area that consists of affordable housing, student housing, family sized apartments and luxury apartments. This allows gentrification to occur but without forcing the existing inhabitants to leave.

The continuous pedestrian street serves to create more commercial spaces that support the residences and the people surrounding the structure. It also creates a new infrastructure that allows pedestrians and bikers to commute throughout London. This reducing the congestion on the existing street and creates an enjoyable walkway above that has panoramic views of the city.

Hydraulic elevators and spiral stairs allow users to access the new pedestrian street level and residential spaces. The overall design minimized the footprint on the ground while maximizing the space above.

The new ground over the existing overground train infrastructure is used to create a new pedestrian street that connects the whole site and is barrier between the public programs below and on the new pedestrian street, and the residential space above.

The proposed infrastructure uses a megastructure that is offset from the existing overground infrastructure and is accessed in the residual spaces adjacent to the overground.

Existing programs that utilize the arched spaces underneath the overground will be given additional space on the above section in order to promote commercial growth. For example, the club Cargo will be given an additional space that is above the trains and can be accessed from the new pedestrian street level.

This project is one specific place along the overground but the intention is that this typology can be repeated throughout this "new ground," which could a continuous ribbon above the entire overground train infrastructure in London.

We created 6 different housing typologies that could be inserted into the gridded plan system. The infrastructure for the residential units is located underneath the corridor. Residence could purchase one or several units to then create their desired apartment type. We also created student housing that would occupy a whole block to create a private area for them.