Queen's Square
London Borough of Newham
2023
Co-designing with local residents an inter-generational space for rest and recreation.
Queen’s Square by JA Projects: Photo’s by Thomas Adank
Using our expertise in architecture, art and performance, JA Projects has been working with local communities and businesses to co-design improvements to Newham’s Queens Market and Queen’s Square.
The £5.3M Queen’s Market Good Growth Programme is jointly funded by Newham Council and the Mayor of London, aiming to support the Council’s ‘Towards a Better Newham’ Covid-19 Recovery Strategy, its Community Wealth Building priorities and the Mayor of London’s Good Growth objectives.
The Queen’s Market Good Growth Programme is made up of four projects, two of which are led by JA Projects, that will be co-designed with residents, traders and shoppers and implemented over the next two years.
JA Projects have been appointed to lead on the designs that improve and enhance opportunities for rest and recreation on Queen's Square and the surrounding public realm.
Concept images
Concept
The vision of the square was structured with three conceptual strands:
Greening Green Street: Orienting activity around textured treescapes, introducing a varied plant mix that reflects cultural influences of the area.
Hamara Chowk (Our Square): Built elements that accommodate everybody, space for playing children and seating for older residents, encouraging multi-generational activity.
People: Working with the community to discover the character of E13 and build elements that reveal stories and local narratives.
Now open and in use, Queen’s Square shows the output of years of dialogue that led to the realisation of this project. A tapestry made richer by the evolving layers of people and activity that make Queen’s Market and Square so spectacular.
Images from ‘Talking Shop’ co-design workshops with local residents, traders and shoppers.
Co-design
As part of an overall engagement strategy for the Queen’s Market Good Growth Programme, JA Projects have been running ‘Talking Shop’, a series of co-design workshops with local residents, traders and shoppers.
‘Talking Shop’ is a bespoke co-design programme tailored to the Queen’s Square Project. Designed to capture local knowledge, the programme combines informal conversations, workshops and events to ensure the project truly speaks of the people who enliven it. JA Projects ran multiple sessions from a market stall, gathering a detailed understanding from the local experts on what works and what needs work.
A series of events have allowed them to trial design elements, from seating arrangements on the square during Hamara Chowk, ideas for signage during Market Make Day to A Seat at the Table, a communal meal to share feedback and test lighting elements.
The opening of Queens Square on Green Street took place on 30th September 2024 and since then many people have been enjoying the improved space delivered by JA Projects with London Borough of Newham as part of a live Good Growth project to make improvements to the Square and market. Those who attended the reopening were also invited to provide valuable feedback on our work.
Core Team
JA Projects, Nulty, BWA, EDP, Andreas Lechthaler Architects, and Simple Works
Particulars
Client: London Borough of Newham