Hackney Wick project

I read about this yesterday in Blueprint magazine and wanted to spread the news. The team behind the wonderful Cineroleum outdoor cinema last summer is working on a new project, this time under the 6 lane highway at Hackney Wick in East London. For those who don’t know, Hackney Wick is something of an urban wasteland. I don’t mean that in an insulting way at all. It feels remote with a wonderful quality of light and a very high concentration of artists’ studios. Being close to the new Olympic Park  will raise the profile of the area which is still quite rundown.

Back to Cineroleum: this was a disused petrol station in Clerkenwell which became transformed into an outdoor cinema by Assemble, a loose group including architecture students. They made the seating from old pallets and blackout curtains from silvery-backed Vyvek fabric. It was a very poetic use of the space which I loved going past.

Anyway, the new project is to create a performance and event space including the canal ready for the summer. They are having to rely a lot on volunteers for the building – a great project to work on if you’re in the neighbourhood.