Riverlight is a residential-led mixed-use development, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, on a five-acre industrial estate close to Battersea Power Station on the south bank of the River Thames. The comprehensive culture and placemaking strategy written by Futurecity highlighted the local authority’s focus on play in the public realm and Wandsworth Council has subsequently promoted the strategy as an exemplar for this regeneration area. From the outset Futurecity promoted the idea of a new creative district for London, working with the two London Boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth and the Programme Delivery Team to explore a culture-led placemaking approach for the developers and landowners of Nine Elms.
Sixty per cent of the Riverlight scheme is public open space, which led to the development of a strategy that encompasses a series of proposals that support long-term activation of the public realm. A ‘Lead Artist’ programme invested in the talent of three contemporary artists – Simon & Tom Bloor, Kate Davis and Peter Newman – commissioned to work with landscape architects Gillespies to develop their ideas. Artists Simon & Tom Bloor’s commission ‘Terra Ludi‘ is a sculptural rock outcrop and a ‘felled’ full-size bronze tree. Multiple stone structures scattered through the landscape provide stepping stones and seats. RCA Fellow artist Kate Davis and David Moore used water, light and polished steel to create ‘Light & Water‘ – reflective interventions across the landscape which are hidden and revealed at different times of day and different seasons. The artist Peter Newman designed ‘Skystation‘ – an aluminium circular seat based on Corbusier’s Chaise Longue LC4 – which offers upwards of 12 people a place to recline and look at the sky.
In addition, Futurecity brokered a cultural partnership between St James and the Royal College of Art for a new cultural hub, StudioRCA, that awards RCA Students an opportunity to exhibit their work in a credible professional and public space. The RCA Riverlight Award is an initiative that extends the partnership. The programme selected and commissioned students from the Royal College of Fine Art’s School of Fine Art to realise permanent site-specific artworks for the residential lobbies at Riverlight.
