TAKING PUBLIC GARDENS TO NEW HEIGHTS
27 May 2021
A 5-kilometre network of public spaces and gardens, London’s The Tide is both an elevated and at-grade walkway that provides a network of recreation, culture, and wellness.
Activating space above and below, The Tide provides a layered network of recreation, culture, and wellness. Bringing together diverse ecosystems, emerging neighbourhoods, and distinct cultural institutions, the park connects north to south, east to west, centre to the periphery, and city to river.
The Tide is both fast and slow; it is simultaneously a running track, a walking promenade, a series of quiet gardens, and a network of social and cultural hubs.
Conceived of as a series of elevated, landscaped islands, The Tide invites the public to slow down, linger, and overlook the life of the Peninsula. Each island is distinct, defined by unique trees and planting, and by their surrounding views and sounds.
These elevated gardens are designed as clusters of structural supports that create elevated planter beds, containing soil and channelling both gravity loads and water down to the ground. The sculptural structure supporting The Tide gardens above also frames and shelters the path below, creating arched pavilions that mark thresholds and passages at the ground level public realm.
Images via ArchDaily