Wolves Lane Community Centre

Studio Gil in collaboration with Material Cultures have developed the masterplan for a 1-hectare site situated in Wood Green, North London, as part of the Mayor of London funded Market Garden City project. The project re-animates a dilapidated site by retaining existing glasshouses and adding much needed community assets by way of creating new teaching, meeting and learning spaces.

The new ecologically-designed community hall building will host community kitchens, workshops and events whilst a courtyard building will provide classrooms, workshops, offices and a distribution warehouse. There are a series of carefully landscaped courtyards between the buildings, with biodiverse planting representing the diversity and cultural heritage of those on site and within the community. The site will host a wide spectrum of activities from Sunday markets, to youth education, to veg box packing. 

The scheme has been designed with a strong emphasis on ideas relating to circular economy, constructed from a palette of natural materials that sequester rather than generate carbon – designed so that they can be easily maintained and adapted. The processes of design and construction become vital opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing, transferring power and agency from the professionals to the broader community of site users. The revitalisation of the site will establish the Wolves Lane Centre as a flagship ecological food growing and community space in Wood Green.