New images show detailed designs for new spaces for the V&A, UAL’s London College of Fashion and Sadler’s Wells

• Images unveiled at Rising in the East conference looking at the successful transformation of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and its future opportunities
• Outline planning application expected to be submitted in December 2016.

The latest images of Stratford Waterfront, part of the new Cultural and Education District at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, have been published today (Wednesday 27 July).

The images, created by Forbes Massie, show the detailed exterior facades of the buildings and were unveiled at the Rising in the East conference on the opportunities and challenges facing east London four years on from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Stratford Waterfront, situated next to the London Aquatics Centre, will see the V&A create a brand new 18,000m2 museum for the digital age, a 550-seat theatre for Sadler’s Wells, a brand new campus for 6,500 students at UAL’s London College of Fashion and a residential development, all set within a unique canal-side location. 

The designs have been produced by Allies and Morrison working with O’Donnell + Tuomey and Arquitecturia. They will be developed during the year before a detailed planning application is submitted at the end of 2016.

The Cultural and Education District also incorporates a new campus for UCL on a separate site to the south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the largest single expansion of UCL since its foundation in 1826. The first phase is expected to have up to 3,000 students and 625 staff, including academics and researchers. 

The Cultural and Education District will provide a showcase for innovation and creativity across arts and education, science and technology and will feature world-leading cultural institutions and universities. Once complete the district will be a thriving creative hub and incubator for new ideas, connected to the area’s rich history and cultural offer.

The scheme is a key part of the regeneration of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and will create around 3,000 jobs, attract 1.5 million visitors a year and deliver a £2.8bn boost to the economy of Stratford and the surrounding communities. 

Rosanna Lawes, Executive Director of Regeneration at the London Legacy Development Corporation said:

“Stratford and east London are changing fast. In a few short years we will see not only a new cultural and education district in east London with some of the world’s leading institutions sitting in the heart of the Park, but new neighbourhoods and business districts and hugely successful sporting venues delivering on the legacy promises made for the 2012 Games. This is the perfect illustration of how Londin is open, and will remain so.”
  
The Cultural and Education District is spread across two sites:

The Stratford Waterfront site will provide new spaces for:

• Sadler’s Wells’ new venue will present the best UK and international work created for the mid-scale 550-seat auditorium, as well as offer life-changing training, development and learning opportunities through its choreographic school, hip hop academy and participatory activities.
• UAL’s London College of Fashion plans to build on the College's East End heritage, creating an east London fashion cluster through education, research, enterprise and its Better Lives programme.
• The Victoria and Albert Museum, who will create V&A East, a new museum for the digital age. Showcasing its world-class collections of design, art, architecture and performance, the 18,000m2 building will be a new kind of cultural destination; weaving together spaces for exhibitions, residences, research, making, debate and play. 

Building work on Stratford Waterfront is will start in 2018 with the site due to open in 2020/21.

UCL East 

• UCL East is creating UCL East, which will develop a new model of how a university campus can be embedded in the local community and with businesses, as well as providing world-leading research, education, entrepreneurship and innovation. The first phase of UCL East, parts of which will open during the 2019/20 academic year, is expected to 3,000 students and 625 staff. 

- Ends -

Download new images of Stratford Waterfront here.  

Find out more about the Culture and Education District here.