Architectural Design

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1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design

Job No: PD0710-67/4028

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Clients, users and brief › Site, context and place

Interview with Julian Lewis, Dann Jessen and

Judith Lösing of East

When you formulated the Transport for London

Streetscape Guidance, what ambitions did you set

for yourselves and the brief?

Dann Jessen

It’s important to understand that the client is London and

that therefore you don’t rely on the express aspirations of

the paying client only, but look at the need for the work that

you are doing and raise the aspirations for it yourself. That

project was special because it stretched across London.

Normally we would be really interested in the specifics of

a local situation; with the Streetscape Guidance we needed

to understand the spatial and cultural characteristics of large

chunks of the city.

Judith Lösing

Transport for London’s ambition is not necessarily about

making a decent background for ordinary life to happen.

Their impetus is about making safe crossings, following

guidelines. Our role was always to bring it back to what it

is like spatially and how it can be simplified.

Does your application of the term ‘client’ beyond the

person paying for the project change your approach

to an architectural problem?

Dann Jessen

With public realm clients the paying client is not necessarily

the one who’s going to use the project, who has most

ambitions for it, who will live with it. Because we have the

mindset that the client group can be big and multi-headed

and ambitious, that means that we are not afraid of looking

outside the red line site boundary. It’s in our mindset that

people outside the red line are also part of the client group

and that influences what we can do inside the red line. If you

can actually push up against the boundary and think beyond

that, then that influences the centre.

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1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design

Job No: PD0710-67/4028

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