The Movement

Strategy

Studio Egret West’s focus at The Movement - a wider mixed-use scheme by HLM Architects - has been on the smaller mixed-use activities, which include the Incubator Units and an extension to the locally listed Greenwich West Community Centre.

The existing community centre is housed in a locally listed 2 storey classical brick building formally the Greenwich Town Hall. Furthermore, the building sits close to the World Heritage site with extensive adjacent Listed Buildings and close to the Asbhurnham Triangle Conservation Area.

The ensuing 200sqm extension projects from the original façade, and offers new facilities including a café, exhibition space, two meeting rooms and a new stair. Our designs recognise the importance of the existing community centre which sits at the heart of the urban block as it faces Greenwich High Road; acknowledging both its importance in terms of the opportunity to create enhanced community facilities and interface with the new development, as well as how this busy and vibrant building could be extended to both improve these facilities and create further valuable animation to the proposed new public realm.

Specificity

The gold shingle cladding emphasises the importance of the community centre as the jewel within the scheme. In addition to creating an opportunity for the existing facility to generate revenue from the café and room hire, the work includes a careful re-working of the existing building to improve the accessibility with a new ramp and much needed accessible toilet facilities.

The incubator units are located next to the community centre and provide rentable space for local small start-up businesses, typically creative or internet enterprises. The design was developed in conjunction with the Greenwich Enterprise Board, the local non-profit organisation responsible for managing the facility. The units vary in size from 15-100 sqm to provide the ability for small business to grow over time. The elevation is intentionally broken up with a patchwork of timber cladding to give a sense of identity to the different units.

Though each building has its own architectural and material identity, they are united in the aim of making the building activities visible and playful from the street experience, thus emphasising the theme of “movement”.

Sustainability

The retention, repair and upgrade of the original community centre building is a primary example of optimising the use of embodied energy.

The incubator units are designed to support local start-up businesses, with the flexible space allowing these companies to grow within the building.