Meridian Water is a £6billion, 80-hectare regeneration project in the London Borough of Enfield. Phase 1 of the Strategic Infrastructure Works is the new Meridian Water station and associated public realm.

We were commissioned in July 2018 to provide RIBA Stages 2-6 services for the Meridian Water (MW) Station Public Realm project, including temporary pedestrian and cycle access routes, a temporary western square, and more permanent public realm integrating the east station access with future Meanwhile Use spaces and a new crossing across a major road.

Conceptually, the project begins the process of recovering the site for ecology and for people, looking forward to future development and residential communities while marking industrial heritage. Operationally, the project enables access to the new railway station while defining a high quality, safe and distinctive experience for residents and visitors.

We combined off-the-shelf products with locally manufactured elements to make low-cost, high-impact spaces. Laying out the landscape in a grid, referencing the gasholder structures and sized to accommodate ISO shipping containers, gave form to furniture, lighting and planting as well as defining Meanwhile Use opportunities. Converted shipping container cycle stores and growing containers for the project were fabricated by a maker space within the masterplan area.

Trees were planted in sufficiently large containers to grow during the life of the project for transplanting into the future landscape. Other sustainability measures include making extensive use of site-won aggregates for bulk fill (almost none was imported), using 70% sustainable urban drainage systems, and 100% LED lighting, dimmable via Enfield Council’s centralised control system.

Completed in June 2019, on time for the station opening, the 10-month project was delivered for a cost of just over £2million, or £162/m2 (including civils works), which compares very favourably to equivalent and more permanent projects.