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London’s Olympic Legacy

East Bank Exhibition

East Bank is opening. At the heart of Queen Elizabeth Park, the project is the UK’s newest cultural quarter. To mark this milestone, Allies and Morrison has curated a new public exhibition.

by Romy Berlin, Daniel Elsea, Alex Wraight, Elliott Ritchie, Christina Maurice & Bob Allies

Our practice has been involved in London’s Olympic Legacy since the early days of London’s Olympic bid. The role continues today as architects and masterplanners for a significant component of East Bank, an important legacy outcome of the original Games investment. East Bank is a unique collaboration between cultural institutions, world-leading universities, local and global design talent, and the people of east London.

The exhibition explores the park – and how it came to be, the people who have been positively impacted by it, and the cultural and educational partners: UAL’s London College of Fashion, BBC, Sadler’s Wells, V&A and UCL. The project of putting on the exhibition provided us with a unique opportunity to study the origins of the legacy, map its outcomes today, and reflect on how architecture has played a role in a major civic project. Materials from our own work on the Olympic and Legacy Masterplans have been selected from our archive and included in the exhibition.

A ‘designers’ table’ in the exhibition features models, drawings, material samples and archival imagery from the architects and designers who have authored East Bank’s different buildings and spaces. There are contributions from O’Donnell+Toumey, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Buro Happold, LDA Design, Stanton Williams, Arquitecturia Camps Felip and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. The exhibition has been commissioned by London Legacy Development Corporation and the Mayor of London.

East Bank: Creating a Cultural Quarter is on view Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, at the lower ground gallery at the London College of Fashion, 105 Carpenters Road, London E29 2AQ.