This project was the outcome of one year’s worth of work. What follows was an examination of the original masterplan for Thamesmead, a major housing and urban development project from the late 1960s, exploring what can be learnt from the policies of the past whilst studying the spatial realisation of the original vision. 

The emphasis of the thesis is on analysing and understanding the spatial principles used in the original masterplan of which I have applied for the New Thamesmead Town Centre. I believe that we must read the past as the ‘template of its spatial structures,‘ in order to be able to understand a New Thamesmead Town Centre. However, the new masterplan seeks to avoid the mistakes of the past. 

The rationalisation of the original masterplan was the key concept guiding the new masterplan. This was crucial in determining the scale and initial building blocks of the new plan, however it did not entirely define all the aspects of the design nor exhaust all meanings. It also defines the nature of the New Thamesmead Town Centre as an urban place of social and cultural form. The New Thamesmead Town Centre proposes to be linked by a large shopping area.