Imagine a river that works for its citizens

Project Insight

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames’ vision for the Twickenham Riverside site was for a design that allows the public to enjoy the full beauty and utility of the riverside, improving the physical link between the river and the town, to define Twickenham as a distinctive destination with a rich cultural history, and a great place to live, work and visit.

Project Idea

All along the river edge, people seek out little pockets where they can connect directly to the water. What makes these spaces magical is the ability to experience the tides as they slowly change throughout the day. It is part of our in-built need to connect with the rhythms of the natural world. The Twickenham Riverside site currently has very limited ability to connect with this aspect of the river. Our proposals change the nature of the riverside walk to allow everyone to have a much greater connection to the changing river, and to become a dramatic destination point on the Thames path.

Project Design

Our design harnessed water, the river and the connections people love to make with them. As well as providing new affordable sustainable housing to Passivhaus standard, high quality retail, office space, and a reconfigured Diamond Jubilee gardens, we proposed three additional specific interventions to make Twickenham Riverside a unique destination to visit, work and live.

• A new floating landscape on interconnecting pontoons that rise and fall with the water level, creating a direct connection to the river and its tides for the enjoyment of the public and providing a landing point for river traffic.

• A covered market building to draw people and activity from the town and open up direct connections to the river and new activity spaces.

• A new outdoor public natural pool - the first in the UK – and Wellbeing Centre, to provide an economic and sustainable solution for inexpensive public access swimming in a green landscape. Floating reed beds intercept surface water run-off which is then naturally cleaned before passing into the river.