Hackney Marshes Centre
Tags: community, sports and stadia, steel, masonry, new build
Related projects: Chelsea FC Youth Training Academy, American Express Community Stadium
- Client: Hackney Borough Council
- Architect: Stanton Williams
- Value: £5.5m
- Photography: Hufton + Crow
Hackney Marshes Centre is a new community hub for the London Borough of Hackney, providing much-needed facilities for the country’s largest population of amateur footballers.
The new multi-use space comprises public changing rooms, café, teaching space and office accommodation, and is designed to blend into the urban open space landscape with a long horizontal form embedded in the woodland margins of the football pitches.
Formed from load-bearing masonry with in-situ concrete slabs and walls, the structure is exposed to create the architecture of the spaces, as well as to provide an economic structural solution.
The materials have been chosen for robustness and their ability to blend into the landscape. Steel panel cladding provides a tough surface which develops and evolves over time. Some panels are perforated and others slide to allow light into the internal spaces. Gabion walls, filled with recycled crushed concrete from a demolition site in Wembley, provide a robust envelope and function as a framework for climbing plants. In front of the changing room windows, the gabion baskets are reduced in depth to allow light into the space, while maintaining privacy.
The project achieved a Very Good BREEAM rating.
Awards
- London Planning Awards 2016, Best Project Five Years On, winner, 2 2016
- AIA UK 2013 Excellence in Design Awards 2013, Best Community Building, winner, 1 2013
- Hackney Design Awards 2012, winner, 1 2011
- Structural Awards 2012, shortlisted, 1 2011
- Concrete Awards 2012, commended, 1 2011
- New London Awards 2012, shortlisted, 1 2011
- RIBA Awards 2012, winner, 1 2011
- Civic Trust Awards 2012, winner, 1 2011
- RICS Awards 2012, commended, 1 2011