Understanding water as a human right and a source of joy and shifting social attitudes to water treatment infrastructure.

Blending landscape, infrastructure, building and hydrological processes, the scheme aims to reposition the public opinion of wastewater treatment by inserting it into the core of a public space and allowing people to experience its regenerative properties.

The scheme is located in the vicinity of Alexandra Palace, London, and partially submerged into the landscape of the redundant filter beds at the Hornsey Water Treatment Works. The proposal forms part of a wider masterplan for a community, centred in sustainable water use. An underground thermal spa forms the heart of the proposal, promoting health, wellbeing and positive relationships to water. All of the greywater produced by the spa is processed and reused on site, through a living, non-chemical, wastewater treatment system that creates a closed hydrological loop with the adjacent water works.

At ground level a landscape of shallow pools, lagoons, water channels and features provides a cooling play space for families in the summer and in the cooler months acts as an extension of Alexandra Park. A secondary landscape of 'hydrobotanic' regeneration ponds filter the surface water through natural processes.