Crossrail 2 Urban Realm Integration Studies

Balancing the requirements of new infrastructure
Planning for the future

Masterplanning

Location:	London, United Kingdom
Services:	Urban design, masterplanning

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Crossrail 2 is the proposed new London high speed, high frequency urban railway connecting South Hertfordshire in the north with the Royal Borough of Kingston and parts of Surrey in the south. It requires the sensitive integration of new stations and station infrastructure within each urban and suburban context.

Working on 13 stations from Tooting Broadway to New Southgate we developed bespoke urban realm integration proposals that considered the impact of this new infrastructure on the local communities, providing public realm improvements to accommodate future growth and developments around each station.

Balancing the requirements of new infrastructure

The stations along the proposed Crossrail 2 line have a variety of scale and complexity. Ranging from metropolitan stations, to gateway hubs, the type of users, constraints, opportunities and scale of possible developments around each location varied considerably. We had to consider all these aspects combining them into high quality urban realm proposals that achieved safe, harmonious and beautifully designed public spaces.

Planning for the future

A thorough analysis of the context, including research on historic development, existing character, built fabric, land uses, movements and planning policies formed the basis of the urban design studies. Building on our practice expertise of transport orientated development we considered the constraints and opportunities of each site to realise the development vision and deliverable urban integration proposals.

The resulting opportunities at some of the stations required indicative development proposals to be considered through the studies to understand value capture and enhancement. For example at Tottenham Court Road we had to consider additional factors such as the potential pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, and at Euston-St Pancras the introduction of the planned HS2 station. The range of readers for the studies from Transport for London to local boroughs required us to use a range of different medium to capture our findings and represent our ideas. We used maps, sections, sketches and artists impressions to successfully tell the story of each station.

Crossrail 2 is a very challenging project, as it requires striking the right balance between the high level nature of the design, whilst also being mindful of technical details and design standards.

Gesine Junker, Principal Urban Design, Crossrail 2, TfL