A13 Artscape

Ave-new

'Arterial' included an avenue of trees that would run the length of the project from Movers Lane to the tip of Hedgefields next to Castle Green and Gale Street Subway.

The proposal was for regular breaks of red and green to create rhythm and continuity. Various disputes with the contractors have seen a variation to the proposal according to local site conditions but the line is clear and distinct nonetheless, whilst also providing a screen to the road.

Ave-New is complemented by adjacent unified acoustic panels, also specified by Arterial, shielding houses from the road, and a shared cycle and footpath, designed by Tom de Paor, in green and gold clear-mac, utilising the route for non-drivers.

At Castle Green the tree line was to cluster into a geometric 'forest' that would reach into and across the Green; now the location for Jo Richardson Community School, causing a reduction in available land.

This caused a revision of the tree line as various contractors questioned its viability at various stages, but with the support of Kinnear Landscape Architects, the project is realised as a single tree line with additional seasonal planting.

AVE-new concept|

A continuous half avenue of trees is planted in a 5/2 rhythm of alternating Tilia Cordata 'greenspire' and Matasegoia to bound the northern edge of the A13 for 1.4 km, address the commuter in his diurnal rhythm and provide an acoustic barrier to the adjoining Becontree Estate housing - each house to receive 1 tree.

It accepts the existing flatlands of Barking and Dagenham as a continuous horizontal register against which the A13 undulates over natural and man made obstacles.

It starts as the reinforced edge of the existing Edwardian Greatfields Park, and ends momentarily in the Holding Pattern to reappear as the plantation of Castle Green.

Ave-new drawing