Westminster borough has a high contrast of income inequality with some of the wealthiest people in London living just blocks away from some of the most deprived people in London. This deprivation includes income inequality as well as pay inequality which leads to fuel impoverished families2.
2. THE SITE AROUND THE STATION LACKS A SENSE OF PLACE AND IS IMPERMEABLE TO ITS SURROUNDINGS Solutions: ● Create a public realm at the station entrance/exit for better permeability ● Enhance the public realm to guide users through a legible path to The Bays & the Paddington Basin
Least deprived areas in London
By: Laura, Makena, Kana, Aditi
What is Fuel Poverty? When households “have required fuel costs that are above average (the national median level); and were they to spend that amount, they would be left with a residual income below the poverty line”1.
Paddington’s Fuel Impoverished Areas
deprived in London”3
Development vs. Inequality? Upon further research into the inequality and social sustainability issues of Westminster we looked into which stations are the busiest among the London boroughs and found a potential correlation between the busiest stations and the boroughs with the greatest income inequality. This information made it clear that we need to address social inequality in a sustainable and creative way, which drew us to our second problematisation. Busiest Stations (London Borough) 1. Victoria (Westminster)
1. Westminster
2. Liverpool Street (City of London)
2. Camden
3. Charing Cross (Westminster)
Paddington Station
Income Inequality by Borough
4. Euston (Camden)
Westminster ranks in the worst 4 boroughs for unemployment, placing 30 out of 32 for unemployment longer than 3 years2.
7. St. Pancras (Camden)
Lacks Placemaking
Mean income of Westminster is 170% of the median income2
5. Paddington (Westminster) 6. Kings Cross (Camden)
Poor Wayfinding
Canal/station entrance
● Install solar panels at and around Paddington Station to supply renewable energy to the local energy grid ● Employ and train local fuel poor households on renewable energy systems to reduce the fuel poor population
“Westminster’s local areas are among both the most and least
The Bays corridor
1. FUEL POOR/DEPRIVATION POCKETS WITHIN & AROUND THE PADDINGTON OPPORTUNITY AREA (POA) Solutions:
Most deprived areas in London
Westminster alone accounts for 14% of all jobs in London… 69,000 of them are low paid2
London Street
Problematisation
Together with the employment opportunities created by our solar intervention, our project will also solve the lack of public realm by applying solar placemaking interventions outside the station and creating a more legible path through the POA.
Not pedestrian friendly
Station entrance
Solarizing Paddington
Westminster Borough’s Deprivation
Confusing Entrance
BPLN0051 Sustainable Urban Design | Solarizing Paddington | Laura Zumbado, Kana Nomoto, Makena Kirkham, Aditi Verma | Dr Tse-Hui Teh, Mr Fernando Gutierrez Hernandez