Deptford Creekside is a regeneration area with a difference. It is an area where modern architecture sits amid industrial decay where nature is reclaiming the landscape. In amongst the trendy cafes and the Sterling Prize-winning Laban Dance Centre by Herzog de Meuron, community gardens and markets have sprung up in disused factory buildings and warehouses. The phase two extension of the Laban Dance school will incorporate the trinity Music School and the design concept by Wilder Associates incorporates the fluid movement of dance with the organic forms of erosion. Woven into the design, a thin band of green representing the resilience of nature has been woven into the form. The scheme invites nature to climb up and over the residential tower building in its relentless conquest of one of London’s last remnants of the Industrial Revolution.
Dance is a synergy between movement and form, motion and expression. We are seeking a form which embodies the rhythmic movement of dance and the fluid motion of water; the timeless action of the tide on Deptford Creek merging with the contemporary movement of human expression. Within the design we seek to weave the material language of Deptfords historic shipyards and industry as well as its aspiration as a cultural quarter.