Photo: David Kohn

A disused print works centre in Hackney Wick will be transformed into an arts centre as part of a £250,000 regeneration project.

David Kohn Architects won a London Development Agency-backed competition to design the new arts centre, which will overlook the Olympic Park.

The building will occupy the White Building, a former prints work, on White Post Lane, near the River Lee canal. It will include a large indoor exhibition space, an outdoor projection screen, studio workshops and a café.

Chief architect David Kohn hopes the centre will become “a public face for arts in the area” but reassured artists that the new gallery was “not going to replace anything there”.

He said: “I’m a big fan of the arts. I’m very happy and delighted to be in charge of this project.”

Joanna Hughes, a local artist and director of Mother Studios, welcomes the new project.

“It’s quite thrilling for the artists and it [the project] shows real commitment, proof that artists are an important part of the community,” she said.

Local resident Anna Howarth said:  “I can’t wait to see some improvements in the place where the gallery is going to be, there aren’t even street lights there at the moment.”

The area is already home to a number of art galleries like the Elevator gallery and Decima gallery. It is also the venue for art events, including the Hackney Wicked festival, which attracted 25,000 visitors last year.

Some artists are concerned that the new developments will cause studio prices to increase, meaning that artists will be forced to move to cheaper areas, as seen in Shoreditch and Hoxton.

Hughes believes that the price raising “is inevitable” but she does not think it will affect the area as much as other areas of east London.

Patrick Michalopoulos and Ismail Erbil, directors of the Schwartz gallery, are unclear about how the centre will fit into the community.

“This kind of polished organisation is frankly alien to locals who know the area so it will be really interesting as local artists ourselves, to see what the art centre’s agenda is,” they said.

They added: “We’re slightly sceptical about what’s happening in the area more generally because of the Olympics, as a lot of it is business and status-related”.