The project is part of a larger, sweeping transformation of the Dalston East London neighborhood, home to a large diversity of inhabitants and users. Originally, a sizable housing complex designed by the firm ARUP foresaw the creation of two hundred and fifty housing units, a library, and businesses, along with an accompanying small pedestrian area. After consulting with residents, it became clear that the development project should  also include the opportunity to create a more significant public space, indispensable for this rapidly changing neighborhood.

We proposed the combination of a number of typologies for this public space, at once square, garden, and community play area. In this way, gradation serves in defining the public space, going from the more mineral and constructed, to the more naturalistic: the trees, first aligned and scattered, are more and more densely planted until finally becoming groves. For the ground, the progression from mineral to plant is established by a succession of surfaces that haven't been planted to surfaces that have, becoming carpets of green.

These sequences of gradation serve in creating a series of public spaces that can be taken advantage of each in their own way: from the large mineral square in front of the library with its more urban scale, to the smaller, calmer, and sunnier spots dedicated to families and children.