Olympicopolis

UCL East is envisaged as a radical new model of how a university campus can be embedded in the local community and with businesses, as well as providing world-leading research, education, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Our new campus will:

• be a home for new UCL activities, not simply an extension of our Bloomsbury functions
• serve as a model for the university campus of the future – open, dynamic and overcoming the conventional barriers between research, education, innovation, public engagement and collaboration
• provide an outstanding environment for learning and scholarship for students, staff, collaborators and the public
• liberate space and enable new opportunities in the Bloomsbury estate
• as a founding member of Olympicopolis, play a central role in the sustainable development of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and east London’s innovative quarter more generally
• facilitate the delivery of UCL 2034, the university’s 20-year strategy.

It is anticipated that the new UCL East site south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit will cover 11 acres and provide at least 125,000m2 of space, with the first UCL East facilities opening during the 2019/20 academic year.

University of the Arts London will create a 32,000m2 research and education hub for the global fashion industry, near the traditional heart of the East End fashion trade. It will bring together London College of Fashion’s 6,500 students and staff for the first time in the college’s 100 year history. 

The new campus will include two major research centres focusing on sustainability and innovation in the fashion industry. It will provide widespread access to advanced fashion technology, business incubators, and a changing programme of public exhibitions.

V&A E20 will occupy 20,000m2 and will present the museum's outstanding collections in never-before-seen ways, greatly enhancing access to 1000 years of design, architecture, art and performance and encouraging public participation in almost every aspect of museum activities. 

Permanent galleries on site will include the first dedicated museum space in the UK to document the full breadth of digital design and begin to write the design history of that fast moving field. There will be space for a rolling exhibition programme curated by the V&A with international partners, as well as studio spaces for new and emerging practitioners. 

Sadler’s Wells aims to create a 7,000m2 venue with a 600 seat dance theatre to complement its existing venues cementing London’s position as one of the world’s greatest centres for dance. 

The new venue will provide flexible ‘making’ spaces for research and development and producing new work, facilities for a Choreographic School, and for a Hip Hop Academy. 

Discussions are also underway with the Smithsonian Institution to join the scheme by opening its first permanent museum outside the United States.

The London Legacy Development Corporation have prepared a local directory which aims to support the Olympicopolis Stakeholder Forum. The directory provides partners and stakeholders with information on many of the local organisations that surround the Park and are active in east London.

Public consultation on the UCL East masterplan is started in summer 2015 to help inform the plans at each stage of design development. The process involves both local and UCL communities to jointly explore a range of themes such as community and access, form and identity and developing a sense of place. There is also a separate ongoing process at UCL to determine the core academic activity for UCL East.

The public consultation is being facilitated by Soundings, who are community consultation experts and are part of the UCL East masterplanning team, alongside LDA Design and Nicholas Hare architects. 

To find out more about the project you can download the introductory flip book here.

What’s happening?

To date, we have held pop ups locally to introduce the project, discuss the masterplan principles and understand local aspirations and views.  In addition to events at UCL in Bloomsbury to learn lessons from existing students and staff, as well as a Masterplan Event held on 22 July 2015 at the London Aquatics Centre to introduce the project to local stakeholders.

We are now in the process of analysing all the feedback and discussing it with the project team to help inform further development of the masterplan. The report is currently being produced and this will be available here to view. In the next stage of consultation in spring 2016 we will hold further events to share the draft masterplan and how it has been informed by feedback to date.

This is part of a wider consultation process that will continue throughout 2015 to review the masterplan as it develops, and beyond this, ongoing consultation will lead to a 2016 planning application.

Contact us

For any other questions or to let us know if you would like to receive future updates, please contact the UCL East consultation team at Soundings on:

Email: UCLEast@soundingsoffice.com

Phone: 020 7729 1705

You can also visit the UCL website at ucl.ac.uk/ucl-east

Public consultation on the Stratford Waterfront masterplan has now started to help inform the plans at each stage of the design programme. Local residents, businesses and other stakeholders will be engaged in a series of pop-up events and workshops over the next year to jointly discuss themes including how you understand place, the aspirations of local communities and the design principles which will influence the plans.

The public consultation is being by facilitated community consultation specialists Allies and Morrison Urban Practitioners, who are working alongside Allies and Morrison to develop the masterplan.

What’s happening?

We recently held a number of pop-ups in local area and we are now in the process of analysing all the feedback and discussing it with the project team to help inform further development of the masterplan. The report is currently being produced and this will be available here to view. 

More information on the materials from the pop-up banners and the feedback form can be found here.

The consultation process will run in four stages and the feedback from each stage will be analysed and available for you to view. We will be looking to share the draft masterplan with you in spring 2016 and show how your input has helped shape its development. These stages will run through the end of 2015 and into 2016, where the ongoing consultation will lead to a planning application later in 2016.

Contact us

If you have any further questions or would like to be kept informed of future updates, please contact the Stratford Waterfront team at Allies and Morrison Urban Practitioners by emailing stratfordwaterfront@alliesandmorrison.com.