Making Waves
BRIEF
Making Waves is a riverside public realm and hospitality scheme designed as a high end destination for professionals at lunch and in the evening, but just as welcoming to students and locals who want to study or take a break outdoors. The site backs onto offices, so it needed an outdoor buffer for their windows, and a two-storey height limit meant the design had to go down rather than up. Every space also needed a view of the river.
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
A strict height limit, two very different user groups and a site between office windows and the river shaped every decision. Rather than fight these constraints, the design takes its cue from the water itself. Terraces step down toward the river in cascading levels, so every space keeps its view while the buildings stay below the height limit. Curving paths, canopies and courtyards flow into one another like currents, drawing people through the site and weaving public space, hospitality and study areas together without hard boundaries. The programme shifts in character as it descends, from polished hospitality to informal study and public space, and within it the bakery and matcha bar are developed in full interior detail, each with its own material language.
