South East London practice Steer Davies Gleave has been appointed by Better Bankside to develop design proposals for the Bankside Boardwalk project, which is partly funded through Transport for London’s Future Streets Incubator.

The scheme will trial a temporary reconfiguration of Lavington Street to a one-way street, and use the freed up road-space to extend the footpath at grade through the design of a new modular structure: Bankside Boardwalk, to help improve the quality of environment of Lavington Street for those on foot.

The appointment of Steer Davies Gleave came following a design competition held earlier in the year.

Ten high quality submissions were made representing a total of 28 organisations, which represent a very wide range of disciplines from highways engineering to urban landscape design and product design.  A panel consisting of key partners Southwark Council and Transport for London were involved in the selection of the winning team.

Originally situated on Lavington Street, it will help to test how streets and pavements can be reconfigured to respond to the changing pressures faced by streets in cities and towns, including accommodating rises in footfall and the need to navigate safely around building sites, temporary hoardings or roadworks.

Streets account for 80% of London’s public realm, and as the number of residents, workers and visitors in Bankside goes up; the streets need to work harder to accommodate these changing needs.  The Bankside Boardwalk will allow Better Bankside and its partners to test new ways of designing streets going forward.

Bankside Boardwalk is commissioned as part of Bankside Urban Forest, the long term programme to improve the network of streets and spaces in Bankside.   Bankside Boardwalk will be installed early next year following engagement with local companies and residents, and will be on site for a six month trial.

The other shortlisted teams interviewed for the project were Cyclehoop with Witteveen+Bos, Carver Haggard Architects and Momentum/LDA.