In Harrow town centre, northwest London, a cluster of demountable studios and gallery spaces is creating new opportunities for culture and enterprise. Designed by London-based studio Jan Kattein Architects (JKA) in collaboration with pioneering social enterprise Meanwhile Space CIC, Art Park Harrow was initiated by Harrow Council as a way to strengthen the town centre’s resilience and help reverse the decline that followed the closure of several major retailers.
Repurposing a council-owned car park
Set on a council-owned car park, Art Park Harrow comprises 15 self-contained studios and six micro gallery spaces. The choice of location represents a considered attempt to demonstrate alternative uses for the site, from community-focused to environmentally sustainable.
Funded by the UK government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Art Park has been given a 5-year lease by the council. The project’s design brief specified the creation of “a new destination that attracts public interest, can host a variety of events and activities, adapts to changing economic conditions, and helps instigate new forms of use.”
Community engagement and accessibility
The Art Park’s development was guided by social, economic, and environmental design parameters. The design process was structured around extensive community engagement, rigorous business planning, and a modular typology that facilitates the project’s relocation at the end of its lease.
The design balances accessibility, integration, and amenity with the site’s constraints. These include the high street terrace to the east, a surface car park to the west, a main road to the north, and service access to the south. The Art Park connects to the high street via an existing archway under Station Road terrace. JKA responded to the site’s constraints by distributing work, exhibition, and event spaces across three buildings arranged around a communal courtyard, which is sheltered from the bustle of its surroundings.
“Art Park marks an exciting step in unlocking creative potential within Harrow,” says Freya Bishop, Workspace Community & Events Manager at Meanwhile Space. “By offering flexible spaces in a neighbourhood setting, it provides a platform where local talent can be nurtured, the community can connect, and creativity and experimentation can be showcased, helping to shape the future of the town centre.”
A vibrant community platform
By setting the new ground floor on a raised timber deck above the existing car park, the design establishes a clear distinction between an everyday amenity and a shared community space. The decking avoids the need for foundations beneath two of the buildings and also transforms the yard into a natural amphitheatre for events and performances, with ramps ensuring full accessibility.
The courtyard is designed to encourage social interaction while offering workspace tenants and local creative practitioners opportunities to showcase their work. Three illuminated glasshouses and a trio of micro gallery containers are strategically positioned to accommodate both two- and three-dimensional art and design. Large integrated planters, filled with native trees, shrubs, and flowers, soften the edge of the site, screening it from the car park to the west and helping to manage rainwater run-off.
“While studio space is a familiar feature of meanwhile projects today, the design at Art Park places equal emphasis on exhibition and expression,” says Gareth Marriott, Director of Design at Jan Kattein Architects. “It is where backstage and centre-stage meet: a connected family of spaces woven through the public realm to create a vibrant platform where artists, local enterprise, and everyday audiences come together.”
Balancing utility and warmth
The assemblage of buildings achieves a balance between brightly coloured utilitarian elements — shipping containers with exposed tube-and-fitting railings, balustrades, and frames — and the warmth of carefully crafted timber cladding, linings, and insertions. The design pays homage to German-born architect Walter Segal’s self-build housing: the Segal self-build method. Hardwood strips conceal the joints between OSB wall panels, avoiding the need for penetrating fixings and allowing the panels to be reused in the future.
Translucent polycarbonate brings soft north light into the double-height hall at the heart of the Art Park. This space is home to anchor tenant Crowning Greatness CIC, an organisation that empowers young people aged 11–15 through a mix of creative arts, personal development, and community leadership.
Adaptable, demountable, and reusable
The design takes a deliberately economical approach, aiming to minimise waste and embodied carbon while making the most of Harrow Council’s investment. Shipping containers, a tried-and-tested system, provide robust and re-deployable studio spaces. Pre-fabricated greenhouses serve as weathered exhibition showcases that can be easily reused, while the large hall is modelled on a steel-framed agricultural shed system designed to be unbolted and reassembled elsewhere. Across the site, both structures and services have been planned with flexibility in mind, leaving scope for future partitioning and the addition of mezzanine floors.
