From living in Docklands I know what a grim place it can be.
The main built form seems to be infrastructure, interesting then to hear Geoff Shearcroft’s statistics: 22% of land use in the UK being for roads compared to only 8% housing.
You could map the whole history of the Thames Gateway from its infrastructure. This is very evident around the Royal Docks and Beckton, where I am most familiar. The area and its infrastructure only exist because of the docks, which haven't operated for years. Many programs of renewed infrastrucure provision have been attempted to encourage re-development. The legacy of the Thatcherite programs with brick clad concrete bridges, 4 lanes wide which lead to fenced-off dead ends in mid air. Others altered to make into green connections between bits of residual scrub, left in the ‘frozen bits of land’ between concrete ribbons. Then the undulating DLR, bizarre for such a flat landscape. Affording great views (a matter of opinion) in places and dark depressions in others. Its so slow. Concrete, raw-nothing happening in the gaps though, cost seems to be the only consideration when it came to design.
At this point in the Thames Gateway the big sheds are not hidden, are even celebrated with prominent locations facing the infrastructure. Excel and the Royals Business park, even the Architecture School at UEL. Then this was the original theme for the area, large warehouses by the docks.
There was a good model a few years ago by an RCA student describing the infrastructure of the area, I will dig that out.
The observations about repetitive housing not meaning that what goes on inside the houses is the same was very encouraging. ‘While you were sleeping and trying to dream’ Things were being built and people carrying out their lives amongst it all.
Back to repetitive housing, this was a project done in Beckton about how people could adapt their houses to innovate or support changing circumstances: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanbuzz/downloads/projects_03/CD-G-Workshop_Case%20Study.pdf
This is a very interesting new book on the subject, again, not sure about its conclusions but nice drawings!
http://www.dk-cm.com/projects/sub-plan-a-guide-to-permitted-development/
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