Green catalyst.

A bold new park in London's Docklands will be the focus of a wide reaching masterplan to mend a fractured urban realm and re-establish a sense of community.

Silvertown, in the east of London, is a bleak tract of extinct Docklands, bounded to the north by the heroic expanses of the Royal Docks and to the south by the River Thames. The process of regeneration has been slower to register here than in other parts of Docklands, yet there are reasons for coming, notably the London City airport and Thames Flood Barrier. Like the redevelopment of the former Citroen works site in Paris (p74), the London Docklands Development Corporation has made a park the focus of a restructuring of the area. The allotted 14 hectare site lies next to the Thames Barrier, so establishing a strong focus for development.

Groupe Signes, together with Patel Taylor, won an international competition held by the LDDC for a phased masterplan, in which a new park acts as a catalyst for reestablishing a cohesive urban framework. The park is intended to complement future spaces and provide both physical and visual links from hinterland developments to the River Thames. Groupe Signes' Alain Provost (one of the landscape consultants on the Parc Citroen) and Patel Taylor envisage the new park as something more than simply a green lung salvaged from the leftover space; instead, it becomes a place of cultural and communal significance, with its own clear identity, capable of sustaining a wide range of activities.

The core of the park is formed from a large, raised grassland plateau, level with the river's edge, its strong Euclidean form emulating the muscular, man-made topography of the Royal Docks. The plateau establishes a clear sense of space and order and is bisected by a 'Green Dock', a 400 m long strip of lush planting linking the Royal Victoria Dock with the Thames Barrier. The Green Dock is hollowed out of the plateau, creating a sheltered microclimate for the cultivation of more tender ornamental shrubs and perennials. Along the river's edge runs a promenade, with views east to the Thames Barrier and west up to the City. A series of sunken rectangles lying along the axis of the Barrier provides facilities for sports and play. Circumnavigating the plateau is a wide path for cycling and jogging, which overlooks and connects the park's various activities and areas. The perimeter of the park is surrounded by a ha-ha, so avoiding the need for more overt means of exclusion, such as fencing or barriers.

Once the park is established, it will form the core of new urban development, with residential development around three of its edges, establishing a hierarchy of public and private spaces in the manner of the traditional Georgian square. Yet miles from London's Georgian heart, the new park and its attendant housing offer a modern response to the task of reestablishing both urban grain and community identity. Here, at least, the future looks hopeful.