Located in the Hammersmith and Fulham, London, the Sands End Community Centre by Mae Architects blends several ambitious elements within a highly sustainable shell.
Catering to a wide range of users, the project includes café space along with spaces for social and educational functions, clubs and events. With a view to long term community use, nursery facilities have been included in the scheme.
The new centre sits adjacent to a lodge constructed in 1903, which is a key marker signalling arrival in the park. The exterior timber detailing and the roof are typical and a distinctive element of London parks built from this date. The architects have retained the lodge building, repurposing it as an arts space. New additions have been added around this, forming a series of new internal and external experiences.
The triangular forms of the new addition reference glasshouse structures - formerly sited in South Park and Fulham Palace – that Mae unearthed from archives. Clerestory glazing also adds to the glasshouse effect, drawing light in from above the existing Victorian perimeter wall without detracting from it.
Over 35% of the building material is composed of recycled materials, with a responsibly sourced CLT timber structure that has an inherently low embodied energy value. In addition, construction assemblies use structural fixings like bolts over glue, thus allowing for ease of assembly.
The building’s brick skin comes from specialist supplier ‘StoneCycling,’ with the brickwork on the project upcycling over 28 tonnes of potential landfill material. The bespoke ‘Nougat’ WasteBasedBricks were created specifically for Sands End, to suit the particular site and its context.
Internally, the use of timber exposed structure and envelope reinforces the sustainable agenda behind the project while giving a highly tactile quality to space.
