THE FORGOTTEN VIEWS OF WALTHAMSTOW WETLANDS (SEMESTER 1), LEA BRIDGE ECOLOGY CENTRE AND PLANT EXCHANGE (SEMESTER 2)

by Vilde Myrhaug

My semester 1 project explores different ways of viewing and framing the landscape of the Walthamstow Wetlands. It challenges the users to pay attention to different qualities on site, both the obvious grand views, and the forgotten ones. With three smaller viewing points placed along the walking path, the viewers get a quite individual experience that enhances the qualities on those sites. The main building is an extended viewing point that also serves as a worksop space over the period of time that the structures are built, and after it is completed. My semester 2 project is set in a future where the winters will have heavier precipitation and floods and the summers will have droughts and hot weather. This will lead to certain plant species going extinct. My ecology centre will therefore rewild a brownfield site in the Lea Valley, and build an Ecology Centre and Plant Exchange where the visitors can help plant and reproduce seeds for the seed bank on site. The project uses a flood water harvest system to store water for the summers, and use it to water the site, and operate the building.