At the fringes of East London, where the River Lea weaves through its post-industrial landscape, Cody Dock sits quietly — a once-forgotten corner now reimagined as a threshold between land and water. The Hull emerges here: part vessel, part living infrastructure.
The project proposes a flexible timber framework that reconnects the dock to its tidal edge. Inspired by the craft of shipbuilding, The Hull invites both human and non-human life into its evolving structure. Rather than a fixed building, it supports a continuous process of use, repair, and renewal.
Beneath its elevated canopy, boatbuilders, seasonal residents, and visitors share space with regenerative activities: algae filtration, boat repair and small-scale bio-reuse unfold alongside the rhythms of the tide. As the river rises and falls, submerged platforms emerge and retreat, subtly contributing to the dock’s ecological restoration. Biofouling — typically seen as a nuisance in marine infrastructure — is instead harvested and repurposed into bio-based materials, offering new value to what is often discarded.
Above, a lattice of timber frames adaptable workspaces and open terraces, welcoming public engagement and encouraging the slow choreography of making. Here, craft is celebrated as labour — embracing the hands-on, unfinished nature of ongoing repair and maintenance. Temporary accommodation enables apprentices, researchers, and visiting craftspeople to reside in the structure while contributing to its evolving purpose.
The Hull is as much about process as it is about place. Instead of delivering a singular solution, it offers a framework that can shift and grow over time, responding to changing needs, seasons, and uses. By embracing reuse, cohabitation, and low-impact construction, the project proposes a quiet alternative for how urban waterfronts can be reclaimed — not as polished developments, but as vibrant, ecological, and communal spaces rooted in care, craft, and renewal.