Woodwharf

THE PROJECT
Wood Wharf is the most recent chapter in the transformation of the historic West India Docks. Once part of the world's busiest port during the 1800s, this site now welcomes 120,000 office workers every day. The docks closed in 1980, and since then the district has become one of Europe’s largest centres for finance, business and tech, with more than 16 million sq ft of office space.

Canary Wharf’s new district, Wood Wharf, has been designed to provide a new residential led, mixed use, waterside community defined by the quality of its public spaces, the diversity of its land uses and activities, and its world class architecture. It involves the repositioning of the Canary Wharf Group brand, moving away from more traditional business conventions of banking and finance, with a shift towards a contemporary way of working that suits the needs of its tenants, tech companies and creative agencies, a repositioning of the estate.

The masterplan, designed by Allies and Morrison Architects, creates a strong and complementary mix of uses, providing over 3,300 new homes, nearly 2 million sq ft of high quality commercial office space, and a further 490,000 sq ft of shops, restaurants and community uses.

The development will broaden and extend the Canary Wharf Estate, adding to its vibrancy and continually expanding its cultural, community and commercial aspects. The site represents one of central Londons’ largest privately owned development sites extending to 23 acres and is recognized as being of major importance on a local, national and international level.

OUR ROLE
We worked directly at board level, to reflect the magnitude and originality of this scheme we wanted to produce a set of remarkable, powerful and unique visuals that push the boundaries of architectural visualisation and create a new precedent in image making. 

We worked closely with the Canary Wharf Group board and the respective architects of each plot, ensuring all aspects of the scheme were expressed and articulated in the best possible way. The end result was a suite of 70 images showcasing elements of the whole scheme, specific buildings, new public spaces and a series of office interiors and lobbies which provide a backdrop for the kind of forward thinking and innovative people that will work and live there, people that shape the future of London. 

Storytelling and the use of visual language were both major parts of the process when conceiving the images, in order to change perception of what Canary Wharf Group represents. The creative tech industries have a very different flavour to the more formal finance sector which CWG are well known for. So when addressing the repositioning of the Canary Wharf brand for Wood Wharf, we did extensive amounts of research for the people focused and narrative lead images, and conducted the biggest model shoot the studio has seen to date, with an entire dedicated wardrobe department and considered narratives that reinforce the message of identity and brand.