IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section B

Abstract

The heritage site of Maritime Greenwich, with its architecturally coherent ensemble and rigid spatial organization, presents significant challenges for innovative regeneration. Its World Heritage Site Buffer Zone negotiates the complex interplay of neighborhoods’ identities, the generosity of urban green space, and the need to accommodate an influx of visitors. Overbuilding is not a viable option, yet the question remains: How can the site become more accessible and better connected to stimulate our imagination about the values of proximity to heritage? This proposal begins with an examination of the strategies and concepts proposed by contemporary architects and landscape architects who integrate nature, participatory initiatives, and public space to bridge the spatial and temporal divides inherent in heritage sites. For instance, Bas Smets employs microclimatic interventions to create local ecologies that shape human interactions with heritage sites. The Danish firm Cobe reimagines the Scandinavian concept of the Tingsted—a traditional meeting place—through underground interventions for the Danish Parliament, promoting unexpected, dynamic democratic engagement within an otherwise static and monumental institution. These strategies suggest that urban interstitial interventions have the potential to reframe heritage sites not as closed, static relics but as interfaces for exchanges between nature, people, and ideas. This proposal will use drawings and diagrams as spatial tools to identify and advance opportunities at the peripheries and thresholds of Maritime Greenwich, advocating for adaptive, ecologically sensitive design approaches that place its historical narrative within a more dynamic, open-ended urban context.