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Y5-S2 MArch civic hub [2]
[2,3,5] Bankside Open Space Trust - Room To Grow | Jamie Brown From time to time everybody needs a little space. In the built-up streets, near London Bridge and Waterloo, the Bankside Open Space Trust work with local people to develop urban green space so they can relax, kick a ball, grow plants or just hang out. The existing charity work with communities, encouraging community involvement and a local pride to improve and maintain important green open space. The Room to grow project, situated on Blackfriars road, aims to create a new headquarters from which the charity can operate from increasing both the scale and the scope of work. At the same time, creating an inspirational learning and research facility, specifically looking at intensification of green potential space within urban areas making this wealth of knowledge and skill available to all. 170
Meticulously weaving into the existing fabric, the proposal uses the complexity of the programme (ranging from residential to research) to create a porous urban addition emphasising a hidden wildness of growing living autonomously with the tactile architecture. From East to West there is a transition from the ‘reflective’ to the ‘active’. Within the reflective the public can use the learning facility to research growing techniques and attend workshops and lectures. This is also where the urban plant research is carried out. Within the active is an inspirational botanic garden where practical learning and research takes place in a number of test beds and greenhouses. As the new BOST hub, the room to grow scheme will encourage visitors and wider communities alike, whilst being sensitive to the local residents on the square.