Studio Weave were appointed following successful work with London Borough of Hackney on the Hackney Central Masterplan, Dalston Permeability Study and Dalston Town Centre Improvements. The project originated from community action, with residents collectively reporting dissatisfaction at the poor health implications of their street being daily overrun with school drop-off traffic and associated pollution. The community negotiated with London Borough of Hackney to remove parking bays and restrict access, affording designation of an area of the street to provision of a small parklet in front of Colvestone Crescent Primary School. Our scope included developing proposals for Colvestone Crescent, as an exemplar prototype for future school streets.
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Prior to developing specific proposals, we identified a number of ‘school street parklet principles’: accessibility throughout; biodiversity and climate resilient planting delivering health benefits; provision of active travel infrastructure and incidental play opportunities; pedestrian priority; and specification of natural sustainably renewable materials throughout – where possible.
The site specific layout for Colvestone Crescent principally introduces a modal filter at a carefully defined juncture: defining the pedestrian priority parklet area, whilst ensuring that necessary vehicular servicing and turning can still be achieved safely. The parklet is characterised by a meandering route through different character and use areas: community garden areas for teaching urban growing; dense perennial planting areas which provide habitat opportunities for insects and food sources for bats and birds; play areas which recycle timber from tree fall and stone waste from other public realm improvements as stepping stones; and more. In addition to activity areas, the scheme provided amenities such as communal seating, cycle storage, improved lighting, and sustainable drainage.
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