LFA and Westminster City Council reveal Harrow Road competition winner

A design team of WY Design, tomos.design, COMPENDIUM and Studio Yu has been selected as the winner of a competition to create a new public realm intervention alongside the Grand Union Canal, organised by the LFA and Westminster City Council (WCC), in partnership with the Canal and River Trust.

Following their competition success, the design team is now developing the Co Mooring  – a community-based project that seeks to harness community activity taking place on London’s canal network to enliven the space beneath the Westway flyover in the Harrow Road area of Westminster. The proposals in development aim to bring together boaters with local people, building connections between the area’s transient and permanent residents, and using simple inventions to animate the towpath and canal.

WY Design, tomos.design, COMPENDIUM and Studio Yu are a design and research collective based in Copenhagen and London, with a mission to pursue socially useful design as a means of public engagement. The team overcame competition from 49 entries following an open call to architects, landscape architects, designers and artists. The competition was judged by an expert panel comprising Ruchi Chakravarty (urban design coordinator, Westminster City Council), Hannah Gibbs (enterprise manager, Canal & River Trust), Sophie Nguyen (local architect and Westbourne Neighbourhood Forum), Biljana Savic (local architect and director, Maida Hill Neighbourhood CIC), Tamsie Thomson (director, London Festival of Architecture) and Frances Williams (technical editor, Architects’ Journal).

As the London Festival of Architecture explores boundaries in 2019, we were extremely impressed by this project seeking to break down boundaries between local communities and canal users in Westminster. At first glance, the towpath beneath the Westway is an unpromising place, yet the design team’s simple concepts promise to bring the Grand Union Canal to life and for the benefit of everyone.

The Co Mooring project will play host to a month-long programme of exciting events this summer, as it opens to the public on 28 June. Help us celebrate the project’s official launch and join us for a Friday evening of pecha-kucha style discussion around the use of canals as public space in the 21st Century, hearing from speakers from local communities, Westminster City Council, Canal & River Trust and the design industry.

Tickets to the launch party and discussion are free and to register your place, simply click here. The full programme will be released soon, so watch this space to make sure you’re the first to know!