A Shared Hall & the Festival of Making, by Nine.
A design with community involvement at heart of its concept.
WINNING CONCEPT
Building projects are often unsuccessful when they neglects existing local residents and community‚ as land is developed to maximise density, and civic gestures are reduced to meet basic planning requirements. This concept opposes this by placing the local community at the front and centre, highlighting the need for their presence in the future growth and redevelopment of Tottenham.
“The act of building is engaging people with architecture and the built environment. People being involved in this process and thinking about their built environment, consciously or subconsciously, it’s all positive for being able to comment on how our built environment grows and develops.”
Hamish Warren, Nine.
A Shared Hall...
Inspired by the old market halls and clock towers, which are often found in the centre of market towns, and represent the ultimate civic gesture. Forming a notable location at the centre of a community, they provide a place for people to meet and socialise, as well as host a sequence of organised events such as markets, civic celebrations, concerts and speeches. Seen as a good example of a ‘shared hall’, flexible in its use but civic in its presence.
The concepts interprets this by placing a generous shared hall in the middle of the site, creating two distinct spaces either side allowing for a range of concurrent activities, or for the whole site to be brought together through the hall. It is orientated toward the street, following the grain of the terraces along Seven Sisters road and forming a strong gable end facing the Eade road.
The character of the pavilion references the industrial roofs structures that are characteristic of the Harringay Warehouses. The pitch of the roof is similar to that of the sawtooth roofs, while the corrugated sheeting is a familiar material within the district. Externally, the striped roof is an expression of the celebratory nature, whilst internally it forms a decorated ceiling.
A marker at the entrance acts as a gatehouse, glowing at night, signalling the Pavilion to passers-by. A ‘Makers shed’ sits along the western boundary and provides storage for materials, along with two composting toilets with wheelchair access and bike storage.
& the Festival of Making.
The most integral aspect of the proposal is the sequence of engagement events over 4 weekends. The concept is to engage with the wider community, from construction to when it is in use. The festival is a sequence of community events and workshops that follow the key phases of construction. The act of building together as a community can begin to trigger interest and inform people on the wider topic of the built environment, as well as be a catalyst for fostering new connections and relationships.
Simple Materials, Simple Construction
The hall has been designed to use simple construction joints to allow for ease of construction and to accommodate a basic level of skill suitable for all levels of ability to take part in construction. Complex junctions are avoided, timber elements are butted, overlapped and sandwiched together to form junctions. This also allows the materials to be re-purposed when the structure is dismantled.
“The festival of making is more than just a signpost to the existing warehouse community - we thought it could also be a process where you are attempting to galvanise the community and embrace this idea of disrupting built environment norms.”
Will Beeston, Nine.
"You could see how it was going to work and how people were going to get involved; they’d thought about how to contact people from the outside and use others from the inside."
Ryan Hughes, Architect &
Harringay Warehouse District resident
“It’s in the name! This is a strong design and responds to every detail of the brief. The ‘festival of making’ to build it will really give local self-build volunteers a sense of ownership.”
Clare Richards, ft'works
“The meaningful and considered community engagement built into this proposal, coupled with the real connectivity to the local area was what made this design stand out.”
Aida Esposito, Creative Industries Consultant
“A mature design that responds to site, the wider context and the project constraints.”
Stephen Mackie, Sean & Stephen
"There was a real sensitivity around the spaces in-between, how you place the Pavilion on a site and what that creates on either side."
Katy Marks, Citizens Design Bureau
“A healthy measure of humbleness rides with this sketch proposal; humble meaning close to the ground. The design makes a joyful collective labour of raising the pavilion off the ground. I hope the developed scheme keeps and builds upon these commendable characteristics.”
Sean McAlister, Sean & Stephen
“The two strands of approaching the site – splitting it into bits that can be used in conjunction with each other and the idea of the actual building of the Pavilion being a process of engaging the expertise of people in the warehouse community and the wider groups led us to this idea of a simple construction.”
Barnaby Hughes, Nine.
About Nine.
Nine are a group of architects and urban designers who collaborate on projects outside of work. Whilst working in practice allows us to gain experience running a range of larger projects with varied clients, such as local authorities and other organisations, working together as Nine allows freedom to work on smaller, more intermediate projects.