LONDON UNDERGROUND
Size doesn’t matter for WSA
The recent work of small London architectural practice Wicek Sosna Architects (WSA) shows that size does not matter when it comes to delivering high-quality rail
infrastructure projects on time and to budget
W
icek puts this down to a core of highly
experienced rail infrastructure designers, with enviable track records extending back over several decades. Their work has included notable projects such as the Jubilee Line Extension, Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Crossrail (several versions) and, most recently, the refurbishment of the four central stations on the East London Line (ELL) to form the new London Overground service.
The practice was set up in 1996 by Wicek Sosna who had spent a number of years prior to this working on the ‘client side’ for London Underground, as an architectural project manager on Crossrail. This experience brought home the fact that infrastructure design is a discipline in its own right, involving an understanding of a wide array of engineering and design issues, well beyond the normal experience of most architects. With many architectural commissions it is possible to simply ‘learn on the job’ but designing rail infrastructure projects rarely allows this luxury.
It was following this experience that the practice was set up, specifically to provide infrastructure design expertise to the rail industry. The initial concept was a kind of ‘one-stop-shop’ for all things
Oct/Nov 10
transport-related. The practice’s experience and expertise has since grown and now covers everything from urban design to product design; from assessing listed building issues to the use of the latest technologies and materials. Indeed, some years ago, the practice designed the current generation of LUL ‘solid state’ station roundels, revising and simplifying the engineering design, manufacturing process, maintenance strategy and lighting technology. They can be seen incorporated into station refurbishments across London.
The practice’s workload has not simply been focussed on station buildings. Over the last five years it has completed a control centre for the Northern Line in Highgate, London (with almost 1,000 sq m of planted roof); a new train crew accommodation building at Stratford, London for the Jubilee Line (also with a planted roof) and a training facility for track maintenance crews. The train crew building introduced sustainable design into the equation, something that the practice is passionate about. The building boasts
a highly insulated envelope (using sheep’s wool) reducing primary energy loads and it is designed to optimise passive site benefits. The facade that faces the adjacent housing has a ‘soft skin’ – being finished in slow- grown Siberian larch, locking the carbon into the wood for the next 70 years or so.
The opposite facade is skinned in fully recyclable copper. More importantly perhaps, the building is squeezed into a narrow sliver of land that had previously housed nothing more than some temporary buildings and a few skips.
In May 2010 the Mayor of London opened the new East London Line (ELL). This was an exciting moment for WSA, which was responsible for redesigning the four central stations – Shadwell, Wapping, Rotherhithe and Surrey Quays. What was originally envisaged as minor works turned out to be anything but minor, as the stations all needed to be stripped back to their structures and redesigned to meet modern standards. This was made more complex by the
varying ages of the stations, with Wapping still housing the original (listed) Brunel stair and lift shaft. Each station was re-planned with larger ticket halls and new back-of-house accommodation.
This also involved structural interventions and the renewal of all services including a new system of signing, wayfinding and advertising. Rotherhithe has an additional surprise – a series of planted roofs that are visible to passengers as they descend the escalators to platform level.
The architectural approach was deceptively simple. It involved the development of a common theme of appropriate materials, fitments, fixtures and signing that would establish station identity at ‘street level’. This was carefully developed to ensure it did not dominate the differing characteristics of the existing station buildings. As a result, while each one has retained its own specific architectural identity, the new stations clearly belong to the same family, reinforcing the ELL brand.
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