Hayatsu Architects are acting as lead consultant for a multi-disciplinary team comprising Turner Prize-winning art and architecture collective Assemble, graphic designer StinsenSqueeze, landscape architects Jonathan Cook, high street retail specialist Retail Revival, lighting designer Studio Dekka, structural engineer Price & Myers and quantity surveyor Gleeds.

Director Takeshi Hayatsu: “Our proposal is a series of careful adjustments to the existing urban fabric, creating new cut through routes and removing barriers to make a better connection to the market place from surrounding areas. By strategically locating new way-finding signage and community murals along the way from various key local businesses such as the food production facilities under the railway arches and a workspace complex the Biscuit Factory, the project aims to increase the footfall to the market and stitch the site into the wider network of existing and future developments.

The market place will be overhauled as a rediscovered town centre, by improving the infrastructure for electrics and storage provisions, and making visible existing civic assets such as local library and TRA hall. A new Village Green area is proposed to enhance the greenery of the market place where people can sit and relax or hold special events organised by the community to celebrate the local spirit. 

Being located only five minute away from the market place, the design team harnesses the spirit of local production by actively involving the community and manufacturers in the making of the place. Bermondsey lions drawn by market visitors form a new graphic identity and hand embossed tin cladding tiles form a new material language for a market cross structure, creating focal point in the square, embodying the pride of community and marking a visible identity for the Blue”.