One of the best things about being an architect is feeling that you’re making an impact, however small, on the lives of the people who come into contact with your buildings. You are changing in some way the spaces that surround us all, and in doing that, attempting to make everyone’s environment a little better.
When working with private clients, it’s easy to see how the work transforms the lives of the families. But when working with public spaces, you don’t know the people whose lives you’re affecting; you’re trying to guess who they are, and what they’ll like. It’s a huge responsibility, and never more so than when the building you’re working on is one of north London’s most precious – the beautiful Parliament Hill lido.
In 2015, the north-facing walls around the beloved Grade II-listed building suffered some pretty substantial storm damage. Walls became unstable, bricks were broken, and the heavy security railings on top of the back walls had to come down. I live in Gospel Oak, and am a regular in the water, so when Camden Council put out a call for a local architect to come up with a plan for the renovation, I was thrilled when they chose my practice to do the job.
The repairing of the walls required care but wasn’t too tricky: we used as many old bricks as possible and mixed them with handmade ones to match the existing – and then rebuilt the affected walls to their original height.
But what really excited me about the project was the chance to bring some imagination to what was going to sit on top of those rebuilt walls. Security fencing was still going to be needed, but when I talked to fellow swimmers they told me that while the walls and old railings were down, they’d loved the feeling of being closer to the Heath – they were able to see out, and people outside were able to see in. The storm damage had somehow made everyone feel more connected. So I knew I had to find a way to preserve that feeling, while keeping everything secure.
What I came up with was a lightweight fin structure made from slim Stainless Steel verticals. The fins are tall enough and sufficiently close together to provide security, but when viewed straight-on they almost disappear. Like an optical illusion, they become more visible or less visible as you move position, making the greenery of the Heath behind feel less separate and distant.
One thing I hadn’t anticipated though was that the fins would do something else rather beautiful and surprising once fully installed. Their positioning created an acoustic parabola effect, so they now whistle in the wind.
The lido was built in the 1930s and is in the art deco style. It’s a style associated with elegance and glamour, so – even though the request was for security fencing – I wanted it to be the most elegant and glamorous it could possibly be. And now, looking at it, following the curves of the original walls, shimmering against a blue sky, I hope we’ve achieved that goal.
The whistling wall has becoming a special part of the infrastructure in this enclave of north London. It’s a source of pride – something that has quietly made the experience of the lido better for the people who use it.