Tropical roof gardens and a leisure complex designed by Foster + Partners to sit above its new Crossrail station at Canary Wharf in London will open to the public tomorrow.
The seven-storey structure is the first new building for Crossrail – London's new east-west rail link – to open to the public, although trains will not run from the station for at least three years.
Located in the heart of London's Canary Wharf financial hub on the North Dock, the building is one of 40 stations that will serve the capital's new rail network, scheduled to open in 2018.
The station by British firm Foster + Partners includes four storeys of shopping and leisure facilities, including a cinema, restaurants and a roof garden. These parts of the station, collectively named Crossrail Place, will open to the public tomorrow.
Related story: Foster's Canary Wharf Crossrail station nears completion
The roof garden, designed by London-based landscape studio Gillespies, is located directly beneath a 310-metre-long transparent hood that wraps the four upper storeys of the station. Triangular air-filled cushions made from ETFE – a type of plastic used for its resistance to corrosion – are set into the timber-latticed awning.
"Like Crossrail, one of the aims of the new roof garden is to connect London from east to west," said Norman Foster in a statement. "
"It provides a welcoming public space between the residential neighbourhood of Poplar and the business district of Canary Wharf, demonstrating the role of infrastructure as the 'urban glue' that binds a city together," added the Foster + Partners founder.
Planting selected for the gardens is intended to reference the area's maritime heritage. Many of the chosen species are indigenous to countries visited during the 19th century by trading ships that used the three docks built in the area by the West India Dock Company trading group. The docks began to fall out of use in the 1960s and were closed in the 1980s, later becoming part of the Canary Wharf redevelopment project.
"The design of the garden responds to the architectural language of the roof in the creation of a unique and sheltered planting environment," said Gillespies partner Stephen Richards. "It will offer visitors a totally new vantage point from which to look out across the water and the surrounding area."
The roof garden will be open to the public from dawn until dusk. Unlike its City equivalent, the Sky Garden, bookings will not be required.
Restaurants and shops located below the gardens will open in phases, with the first ten coinciding with the opening of the complex.
The post Foster's Crossrail Place roof garden
to open at Canary Wharf appeared first on Dezeen.
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