In partnership with Tower Hamlets Council, we're pleased to introduce the shortlisted designs for our 'Gateways to Whitechapel' design competition.

From over 40 submissions, an expert judging panel of industry professionals has whittled the entries down to just six final submissions. These will now be presented across the Whitechapel area in a public exhibition open to visitors to share their feedback. 

The competition, launched late last year is one of Tower Hamlets Mayor's priority projects, and invited architects, landscape architects, designers, and artists to reimagine key entry points along Whitechapel Road, developing permanent installations that enhance the market’s identity, welcome residents and visitors, and reflect the area’s rich cultural heritage. 

Each of the shortlisted designs were seen by expert judges to celebrate the market's distinctive character and energy, while feeding into Whitechapel Road's wider improvement plan by Tower Hamlets Council.

You can visit the exhibitions in person at the Grocers Wing of Tower Hamlets Town Hall, which has also been printed and translated into Somali and Bengali.

We’re delighted to introduce the six shortlisted teams and their proposed designs for the area. We encourage you to visit the exhibition across Whitechapel and share your feedback to contribute towards the future of your area.

East is an award-winning architecture, landscape and urban design practice. Our work is focussed on enhancing the value of public experience and access in the city. Our projects include housing, masterplans, community and workspace buildings, high streets and other public spaces. We design for places to be positively experienced, environmentally sustainable and inviting for diverse users. Based in east London, we have an international reputation for designing in the specific context of places. We have worked extensively across London, as well as throughout the UK and Europe.

Urban Radicals designs objects, rooms, architectures and landscapes. We are a network of friends, colleagues and expert collaborators, working together across contexts and scales. We grow through projects, parties, dinners, fishing trips, gardening, stories, painting, cooking, walks, gatherings and conversations. Our work ranges from domestic to public infrastructures, instilling a sense of belonging and togetherness. We have won several awards including the representation of Cyprus at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice, as curators and designers. We have also been part of Architecture Foundation's Young Architects in Residence.

As a team, East and Urban Radicals have experience in making public projects that are collective and inclusive: looking first at the realities of what exists and designing playful, robust interventions. Together with specialists Shahed Saleem, Daisy Froud, Edoardo Tibuzzi (AKT II), Anoushka Rodda and Pali Palavathanan (Templo), we strongly believe that public realm projects are able to have impacts beyond their own physical extent. Designing into existing neighbourhoods, making the most of what is already there across spatial, cultural and economic parameters, allows us to design structures and landscapes that add value beyond the scale of the specific intervention, in terms of placemaking and benefits for the wider community.

We are interested in the multiplicity of places and the cultural layering which enables and makes a street 'a successful room for all'. Whitechapel offers glimpses of this, as well as design challenges such as clutter, unclear organisation, and luck of clear identity.

Our multidisciplinary team brings a deep local insight, creative excellence, and a shared commitment to joyful, resilient, and community-led design. Rooted in co-design, our proposals are focused on shaping meaningful public spaces that reflect Whitechapel's unique heritage and support its diverse community.

Together, we offer an integrated and responsive approach, combining architecture, landscape, lighting, sustainability, and community engagement to create welcoming, distinctive gateway spaces for Whitechapel.

This multidisciplinary team pairs award-winning architecture practice IF_DO with east London-based visual artist Alaa Alsaraji, combining architectural expertise in social infrastructure with authentic local insights and visual storytelling rooted in Whitechapel’s diverse communities.

Alaa’s established relationships and intimate knowledge of the area’s cultural landscape ensures the commission will genuinely resonate with local identity, while IF_DO brings proven experience in community-focused placemaking and collaborative design processes.

The collaboration includes partners Arup engineering and Michael Grubb Studio lighting design, the same team behind the award-winning substation and landmark ‘Here we come, here we rise’ at Brent Cross Town, and the research and engagement team at IF Design Labs; the team combines architectural expertise, technical innovation, and artistic expression. 

 

Together, they propose a “Connecting Thread”, a creative series of interventions celebrating Whitechapel’s cultural diversity through distinctive wayfinding and public art that strengthens the area’s sense of place. 

Layer.Studio, in collaboration with Studio Justine Fox and Will Sandy Design Studio, is a collective of designers, artists, and thinkers shaping people-centred, socially responsive, and ecologically conscious places across London and throughout the UK. 

Founded on the belief that purposeful design begins with people, Layer.Studio creates landscapes and public spaces that connect community, nature, and culture. For the Whitechapel Market Gateways, Layer. Studio leads this design collaboration. Luc Jones, Project Lead and Landscape Architect, offers experience delivering public realm and regeneration projects from concept through delivery. He is supported by Matthew Warner, Director of Landscape, whose expertise in placemaking and public realm design ensures the team's approach is both visionary and practical. The proposals will also benefit from the Creative Engagement Leadership of Alison Unsworth, a landscape architect whose background in arts-based facilitation and co-design ensures local voices shape both process and outcome.

Studio Justine Fox, founded by Justine Fox, a colour psychologist and long-term Whitechapel resident, brings an understanding of local identity, spatial wellbeing, and cultural expression, helping to root the design in lived experience. As both a local resident and school governor, Justine offers a grounded connection to the neighbourhood, ensuring the gateways reflect real voices, value and everyday life of Whitechapel.

Will Sandy is a landscape architect, artist, and environmental designer who contributes playful, ecological, and community-driven design expertise, using creative interventions to test ideas and empower people to shape change. Will has over a decade of experience delivering public realm projects across London.

Office S&M Architects and Hanna Benihoud Studio form a collaborative team with a shared dedication to creating joyful spaces through impactful community-led designs and meaningful engagement. This is a tried and tested collaboration, having previously delivered public realm improvements for Holcombe Market for Haringey Council. As before, we will work closely with businesses, local residents, organisations and visitors throughout the process to shape spaces that reflect the character, energy and ambition of Whitechapel Market. 

Office S&M Architects work with a 50/50 split of public clients and private clients, with experience across town centre and placemaking projects around London. The practice is founded on a belief that good design should deliver social value while providing joy and supporting wellbeing. The secret to this is deep listening, forming awareness of needs and aspirations that lead to solutions. 

Hanna Benihoud Studio is rooted in meaningful engagement and creating artwork that spans illustration to large-scale sculpture, blurring the lines between art and architecture. Born and raised in London, Hanna’s work is constantly inspired by the city, capturing the energy of local people to inform site-specific works that amplify untold stories. 

We are thrilled to have been shortlisted! Whitechapel Market is a vibrant place with an intangible ‘magic’ in the clutter. We are excited to explore and capture the sensory experience of the market and translate it into something celebratory that embodies the essence of Whitechapel Market and its people. 

 

Studio Loci’s proposal brings together art, light, and landscape to tell the story of Whitechapel through its people and textures. Led by landscape architect Nigel Prince, the team includes artist and placemaking specialist Peter Fink, local artist Puer Deorum, cultural leader Maher Anjum (Oitij-jo Collective), poet Stephen Watts, and engineering firm Curtins, a uniquely rich collaboration bridging creativity and technical excellence. 

Their concept explores Whitechapel’s layered histories through sculptural forms, material tactility and poetic storytelling. By working directly with local communities and artists, Studio Loci aims to create gateways that are both visually striking and emotionally resonant, contemporary landmarks that feel authentically of the East End.