At the outset of the project our architectural team at BDP and the engineers at Arcadis work
really hard to challenge all the received thinking and assumptions about what the project was going
to be the key part of this was thinking of a very radical reorganization of the way the
station would work taking a previous assumption that all the circulation to and from the station
will be underground and actually flipping that round bringing it so that the concourse
is basically up above ground suspended over the East London line which gives many many benefits
economically, socially and environmentally the old ticket hall and station was very cramped with
a very narrow ticket hall and very tight passages and staircases the new ticket hall design opens up
the space with large staircases wide open spaces and tall ticket hall using lots of glass and open
spaces where passengers can see where they're going and move through the station the wayfinding
also supplements this so the passengers will have a free-flowing and smooth transition through the
station a key part to making the whole space work in terms of bringing people through the ticket
and into the concourse was the curving soffits of the roof as you rise up through the station
really really important in terms of giving people something to look at as they're making the way
up it naturally draws people through those levels and also making it warm and attractive to look at
against what can sometimes be quite harsh and hard surfaces in station environments
there were a number of engineering challenges faced at Whitechapel but by far the largest of
these was building the new station in and around an existing operational railway this meant that
all the construction had to happen while the station was in full use this had many impacts
on the design and construction and involved us in a series of different phasing operations to
maintain the station access and emergency escape we also had to consider the size of components and
where we had breaks in construction and obviously we had to construct a lot of temporary works which
involved construction of hoardings and crash decks and the like we also booked some weekend
possessions through TfL where we had the station to ourselves and we managed over 40 of these and
managed to hand back the station on time each time an underground station has two things to cope with
you're above ground at one point and then you come below ground one of the key points was
making the the transition between the two as easy as possible the change from the bustle and street
life up above to a calmer environment down here for passengers to use and the way that that is
reflected in the materials and the design of the structures we also wanted to make the
links between the different levels as direct as possible so that vertical circulation for example
this grand bank of escalators behind me has a direct line that comes from the daylight concourse
right the way down in a very very direct manner with the platforms on either side
well the sedum roof is a great opportunity to incorporate greenery and soften the environment
clustered around the station are a number of buildings that do look down onto it
of course and there's a great need to be a good neighbour with major infrastructure like
this the sedum roof is great for that the sedum roof is effectively a traditional roof overlaid
with a kind of drape of soft material planting that will give different textures and colours
through the day through the year according to the seasons so it gives that interest when viewed from
above but also gives other benefits in terms of sustainable green features such as drainage
controlling the water runoff from the roof and also acoustic insulation in terms of dealing
with the noise of rain for example controlling that for people within the concourses below
well one of the great things about the station bridge concept that came about
was in terms of the function and the way the spaces work is we could get daylight and natural
ventilation down into them so I think something that's particularly striking as you come into
the station is the fact that you're not coming into a sealed environment you come off the high
street and into a space that as you rise up you can see gaps you can see gaps between the roofs
you can see the surrounding buildings still which is a very different environment to many
other stations so the concourse immediately is different in those ways you can see the
daylight you can see what the weather's doing outside and there's natural ventilation so it's
fresh air it's not pumped air it just feels different from those other aspects so it is a
pleasant environment in terms of the way people experience it not only as passengers but also
what the character of that is for local residents so another key benefit of bringing the concourse
and the station bridge above the station was the ability for us to be able to create a north-south
pedestrian route right the way through the station nothing to do with people using the trains
it's just for local residents it connects from north to south communities that would otherwise
be remote from each other because of the presence of the railway cutting through the local area
we've actually retained the station entrance as what it was originally intended to be
which has numerous benefits one is of course the local community know that as a station entrance
you know so it's part of the surrounding city it's also of course very sustainable we're not
taking something out of use and putting something new elsewhere we're reusing a building for its
original intended use and it has a character and a presence in the surrounding area that we
really wanted to trade on in the design of the station the materials were selected to be robust
able to stand up to the rigors of a daily passenger use long lasting so that they didn't
have to be replaced too often low maintenance so that they kept clean with the minimum amount of
maintenance and cleaning and of course attractive we used a pallet that reflected the local area
we used granite and stone for the flooring concrete cladding and copper and stainless steel
for clearing internally positioning a new major structure the concourse that sits directly over
the Overground platforms sat within an historic Victorian cutting which is not a beautiful piece
of historic architecture but it's got a great character and interest to it it makes a fantastic
space as you experience it and move through the station of course we're aiming to work
as best we can with those historic materials and celebrate them but also make sure that the new
structures and materials that come in work with that in an appropriate manner so one area where
various different ideas come together is the station bridge itself where this concourse is sat
over the historic cutting and it was always very very important part of this that the concourse
didn't just fill the cutting it sat within it the structures support it so it has clear space around
either side that gives us a very clear visual separation between the two between new and old
but gives great opportunities that the design exploits for views between the two levels so as
you walk along the concourse you can look down to the platforms of the Overground station beneath
but also key part of that again is this ability to bring the daylight down from above right the
way down through that glass to the platforms themselves the public realm design incorporates
a new public square in Durward Street at the rear of the station this will include a new raised lawn
and public bicycle parking to the front of the station we have enlarged the forecourt provided
seating and protected bollards around the station entrance one of the major challenges of inserting
railway infrastructure into a city we've got to get a lot of air basically from the tunnels up to
above so at this station we have two locations to deal with on Durward Street the ventilation
shaft as it comes up is is a very complicated and large piece of structure and it has to sit next to
some quite small-scale residential redeveloped Victorian buildings and also Swanlea school an
early part of the evolution of Durward Street shaft in particular was rearranging it internally
actually so that the louvers in the way that the air moves in and out of the structure was actually
pointing away from the school rather than directly onto it the Durward Street shaft is clad in large
format concrete panels these panels incorporate a relief design in a series of dots these dots
represent bell ringing pattern of one of the bells which was founded at the local Whitechapel bell
ringing foundry and at Cambridge Heath a similarly large structure was required slightly taller and
smaller on plan but still a big object in its surrounding area right next to the grade 2 listed
brewery which of course is no longer a brewery but has a residential use and
particular references we picked up on there was the copper cladding that runs round relating to
the copper vessels of course that would have been key to the operation of the brewery in the past
of course this project is a long time from gestation to completion and therefore seeing
how early sketches and concepts can be made real is something that be very rewarding for all the
members of our design team and also the wider project of course you know you may have a small
team of architects working on this with some great engineers on the design team but then also of
course thinking about the many thousands of people who make an effort to design build construct
operate and use infrastructure like this both from when we first came involved in the project through
to completion where we stand today but then hopefully in the many years to come when they use
this infrastructure which is of course going to be such an important part of people's everyday lives