Public Structure, London

Competition Entry

Design: Cassion Castle Architects with Sandy Rendel and Structure Workshop.

Located on the site of the historic ‘Ale-Gate’ on the edge of the City of London, our proposal is a re-imagined gateway for the modern multicultural era. It seeks to provide an archway that is also an inhabitable public space: an arch for everyone.

Our proposal takes the form of a three-legged structure made of heavy-gauge unpolished stainless steel and unfinished oak boards. The space underneath is surprisingly open, almost ‘tent-like’, and arranged to allow free pedestrian movement through and around it. In contrast the space above is designed for more lasting occupation: It is a ‘hill-like’ landscape with raking seating which can be occupied at a variety of scales, from the individual to the communal.

The form of the proposal is deliberately simple in order to provide an infrastructure for occupation without being too specific about its use. In this way it is intended that the structure will stitch itself into the local imagination.

The project was selected to be exhibited at the 2010 London Festival of Architecture.