SHOEBURY-WIX ISLAND

The master plan and site context for Build LONDON Live consists of a hypothetical reclamation of 2.5 x 1.5km of land to form a man-made island off Southend. Named Shoebury-Wix Island, teams are to assume it is connected to the mainland by a short D2T2 (4 lane dual carriageway & twin track rail) tunnel. With direct high speed rail links into London and to the proposed Thames Estuary Airport Island, Shoebury-Wix Island is conceived as the commercial and tourist hub for the Thames Estuary. Designed by BIM Products, Eleanor Atkinson and Kristofer Adelaide, the proposed island will incorporate a rail/road terminal, a yacht haven, marina, parks and road network plus ‘sustainable’ technologies such as Tidal Lagoons, Solar Arrays and other forms of Renewable Energy. Against this context, the hypothetical Build LONDON Live 2009 competition will be to design and create BIM’s for a large scale development with a mix of commercial, leisure and residential uses.

Build LONDON Live Master Plan

The Bll2009 master plan will provide more than 3500 hotel rooms, 100,000+m2 of commercial & office space, 200,000m2 of retail space and more than 6000 new homes, all of which will be designed as Building Information Models during the 48 hour event.

Communication Links

The context model will show the island being connected to London and the proposed Thames Estuary Airport Island by a rail tunnel. A mainline station on the island with high speed rail links would establish the island as the major commercial and tourist hub for the Thames Estuary.

Yacht Haven

The Build LONDON Live scheme will bring valuable economic benefits to the region by creating hundreds of jobs in the marine and tourism sectors. The master plan has been designed to include a substantial yacht haven and marina with an outer harbour capable of accommodating 50 'super-yachts' and an inner basin with up to 1000 marina berths. The yacht haven will be surrounded by maritime facilities and the businesses that thrive on them such as harbour master’s office, chandlery & shops, yacht clubs, bars and restaurants etc.

Coastal Regeneration

The Bll2009 master plan would develop the Thames Gateway into the main centre for yachting on the East Coast and the first port of call for visiting yachts from Scandinavia and the Baltic. The marina is ideally positioned to serve as a gateway into the Thames and the English Channel and its location will help revitalise the local economies along the Kent and Essex coasts. Under-utilised harbours will be developed as destinations for visiting yachts and sustainable employment will be created to the benefit of the wider economy.

Site Context Models

The 3D context models for the Bll2009 master plan is being created by 3DMODELBUILDING.nl and will include all roads, open spaces, plots and the yacht haven. The model will be 'cut' into zones or plots so that each team is provided with a unique site context model in 3D. Notifications will be sent by email to the team principles approximately two weeks prior to the competition informing of the procedure for downloading the context file from the Asite Portal.