The resulting composition
of stacked boxes
overlapping and appearing
to ‘slot’ into each other
was directly inspired by
the site’s heritage
project which had so much community
engagement. It was a well orchestrated
piece of work, including Curo having a
dedicated liaison officer who could direct us
to some of the harder to reach residents.”
He adds: “One of the things Curo was
keen to do was to link the site better into
the city – take fences down and use it to
help in the regeneration of Foxhill by
creating a single combined community
across the new development and the estate.”
The new Community Hub was also
intended to provide the vital linking piece
between the old and new housing, however
its genesis was more pragmatic – a Section
106 agreement that required ‘social
infrastructure’ to support the new
development. Curo spotted this opportunity
to create a shared resource for residents of
Foxhill and Mulberry Park; Fairham says
that Curo’s ambition to make this a
significant asset – one that would
“galvanise the two communities” – was
evident from the outset.Briefing & optioneering
The Section 106 agreement required a
primary school, plus 100 m^2 of community
space. However, reports Fairham, “Curo
said ‘what good is 100 m^2 to anybody’ –
they wanted considerably more.”
Early on in the briefing process, the client
built a business case including a cafe plus
bookable community space, spaces forwellbeing activities, and ‘enterprise space’ as
its three key components. As a result of
Curo’s drive to make “a serious investment
in local prosperity, the brief ended up
consisting of nearer 1000 m^2 of flexible
accommodation for use by local groups.
Fairham further explains the vision of
how the centre would work in practice:
“Parents could drop the kids off at school,
meet up in the community cafe, do some
wellbeing – e.g. ‘Yogalates, ’ singing or
dancing classes – or use the employment
space.” The centre proposed would offer a
wide range of facilities that would not only
benefit local residents’ wellness and
prosperity (many classes are run by locals),
but also that of the region.
The client’s ambition was clear at the
initial interview: “The enthusiasm that
came across was fantastic, we all came
away saying we really hope we win this
one,” says Fairham.
Following appointment, BDP explored a
number of options – together with users –
around the mix of spaces, on criteria of
commerciality as well as community
benefit. The consultation phase threw up
some interesting findings: “Interestingly,
things like a big fixed gym space, which we
thought would be picked up on, wasn’t seen
as a priority; it was more about having
flexible spaces, says Fairham.
The project was a single-stage design and
build, with Rydon being the successful32PROJECT REPORT: MIXED USE SCHEMESWWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF JUNE 2019