Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s riverside park on London’s Greenwich Peninsula opens

As entire swathes of London are undergoing complete transformations – King’s Cross, Battersea and Nine Elms, and London City Island come to mind – developers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to address placemaking, in their effort to weave new buildings, residents and neighbourhoods into real, live hubs of activity and thriving parts of the metropolis. Greenwich Peninsula is raising the game in the field by commissioning architectural innovation leaders Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) to design a coherent public park for the area; and the result's first phase, The Tide, is launching to the public this weekend.
Created by DS+R in collaboration with London based Neiheiser Argyros and landscape architects GROSS MAX, the project was conceived as a linear riverside park, connecting different parts of the Peninsula and helping with circulation flow, as well as providing outdoor space and greenery for users. The team behind The Tide call it a ‘cultural' park too, which makes sense, seeing as it is awash with art pieces by an impressive array of artists, including Damien Hirst, Allen Jones, Morag Myerscough, Heather & Ivan Morison, GERONIMO and Gaz Coombes.
The free-to-view outdoor art collection will change and evolve over time – routes and artworks will be spread across the landscape of native trees and throughout the impressive elevated walkways. At nine metre high, the walkways add a powerful vertical dimension to this park.
‘The design of The Tide seeks to embed a new public realm into the daily rhythms of Greenwich Peninsula by layering together its currents of activity into a thickened landscape,’ says DS+R partner in charge of the project, Benjamin Gilmartin. ‘Visitors will experience the park from varying vantage points, from street level up to nine metre high elevated paths that weave through the site to plug into the existing network of leisure, art, and social life across neighbourhoods. Diverse programming along the way will act as islands that welcome the surges of commuters, visitors, cyclists and runners, while also providing intimate places of pause for contemplation, conversation, and people watching.’
This weekend marks the public launch of the exciting scheme's first phase – the very first one kilometre of the park’s planned landscaped route for art, running, walking and meditation – and the future will see another four kilometre route released in due course. Meanwhile, To launch The Tide, Greenwich Peninsula is hosting the Turning Tides Festival there, taking place from 5 – 7 and 12 – 14 July.
INFORMATION
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Prodrive updates its sleek racing simulator with new craft and fresh tech
Race at home in style with the latest version of Prodrive’s racing simulator, now equipped with Bang & Olufsen sound
-
A local architect’s guide to Joshua Tree
Mirtilla Alliata di Montereale shares her favourite things to do to slow down, look closely, and discover Joshua Tree through a more intentional lens
-
Art meets perfume in cross-disciplinary fragrance series Nez 1+1
Talents from film and fragrance come together to create Ansongo, the latest scent resulting from a creative matchmaking project by perfume revue Nez
-
Shard Place offers residents the chance to live in the shadow of London’s tallest building
The 27-storey tower from Renzo Piano Building Workshop joins The Shard and The News Building to complete Shard Quarter, providing a sophisticated setting for renters
-
Kengo Kuma’s ‘Paper Clouds’ in London is a ‘poem’ celebrating washi paper in construction
‘Paper Clouds’, an installation by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is a poetic design that furthers research into the use of washi paper in construction
-
Foster + Partners to design the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II
For the Queen Elizabeth II memorial, Foster + Partners designs proposal includes a new bridge, gates, gardens and figurative sculptures in St James’ Park
-
Wolves Lane Centre brings greenery, growing and grass roots together
Wolves Lane Centre, a new, green community hub in north London by Material Cultures and Studio Gil, brings to the fore natural materials and a spirit of togetherness
-
A new London exhibition explores the legacy of Centre Pompidou architect Richard Rogers
‘Richard Rogers: Talking Buildings’ – opening tomorrow at Sir John Soane’s Museum – examines Rogers’ high-tech icons, which proposed a democratic future for architecture
-
At the Royal Academy summer show, architecture and art combine as never before
The Royal Academy summer show is about to open in London; we toured the iconic annual exhibition and spoke to its curator for architecture, Farshid Moussavi
-
This ingenious London office expansion was built in an on-site workshop
New Wave London and Thomas-McBrien Architects make a splash with this glulam extension built in the very studio it sought to transform. Here's how they did it
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on life
Thanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being reborn as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend