Ley Line Echoes

  The city of London is a tourist hot spot and the beating heart of the United Kingdom. It is this city that facilitates many artistic expressions and an urban fabric that prioritizes walkability, arts, culture, community, and sustainability. It is this place that speaks to young and old, modern and traditional. Thus, it is the perfect place to appreciate what is around you and disconnect from distractions. The main goal of this addition is to generate a space that will allow participants to be immersed in the city’s iconic river’s edge, allow direct interaction to create a navigational dialogue between the sides, and offer a highlight to the landmarks that London has to offer.

           The site chosen is the bank of the Jubilee Gardens immediately north of the London Eye. The Eye itself is a cultural icon and is one of the most visited structures in London by tourists. This site is close to many landmarks and local hot spots such as Waterloo Station, Westminster Abbey, the Victoria Embankment Gardens, the Royal Air Force Memorial, The Battle of Britain Monument, and more. The city is dense with history and culture, but still allows breaks with ample green space for the community to lounge in and experience what the city has to offer, which is why an expansion of this hot spot would be appropriate.

             The design involves an extension out from the Jubilee Gardens into the Thames River with interactive lights leading to the site, allowing the participants to interact with the other side. The design of the extension was taken with the curvature of the modest Jubilee Gardens in mind. The site possesses a curved path and grass bed design with no sharp turns. With this flow in mind, the initial extension on the southeast bank was curved with one of the exiting paths from the park being its primary entrance to the site. An additional grass bed was also added to maintain the plan’s consistency next to the park. It is this extension of the bank that facilitates the defining features of the project.

               The Portal that sits on the riverwalk serves as a pier and line of communication across the Thames River. The Portal consists of a series of rings that descend partially into the Thames. These rings are wrapped in neon string lights that weave a web through the river. When visitors enter the Portal at night, plucking a string will send a wave of light through the Thames and illuminate the water, then appear on the opposite end where the second Portal is located. Visitors can communicate and play interactive games using light by sending waves back and forth. The neon strings also act as strings of a harp, creating sounds when plucked by vibrating. Visitors can create music on one end of the Portal and can work as a team with other visitors across the Thames to create music together. There is also a series of processional devices that perform a similar function.

                The Harmonic Roots within the Jubilee Gardens serve as navigation, music, light, and entertainment. Visitors to the Jubilee Gardens at night will be greeted with neon strings that ascend from the ground into the sky, glowing in various colors. When a visitor is searching for a popular landmark nearby, they can pluck a string of a certain color, and the roots will send a wave of light in the direction of the landmark. The Harmonic Roots can all be plucked in rapid succession as visitors walk by, creating a melody of descending or ascending notes. Children can run back and forth creating music as they extend out their arms, plucking the roots, creating an interactive system that is additive to the Thames and to the arts of the community regardless of age.

               With all this in mind, the overall idea is to send a message to anyone who enters. To be immersed in what is around you and to take inspiration from the new and old, that both sides are to be respected and celebrated. Each device has a purpose to call to and highlight the cultural icons that anyone can find if they only focus upon them, so that architecture and culture acknowledge the history and character of the place that is being visited or called home.