Enhancement of a significant 16-hectare park in the regeneration area of Colindale. The project will create a new community hub for sports and volunteering in addition to creative play opportunities, flood attenuation and habitat creation.
Client and Contract Period
London Borough of Barnet
2017 – ongoing (currently on site)
Project Objectives
The design approach is entirely outcome driven, these outcomes having been defined in the Borough’s Parks and Opens Spaces Strategy.
• New café and community hub as a base for volunteering and training and along with an equipped events space will generate further revenue.
• Park hub base to support volunteer activity
• Maximise opportunities for Barnfield School to use the Park for sports and educational activities (focussed on biodiversity of Silkstream)
• New Youthzone sports hub to encourage youth engagement and prevent diseases associated with inactive lifestyles
• Flood attenuation –to respond directly to flood incidents downstream within the valley with attenuation areas within the Park designed to provide new habitat.
• Tree planting strategy to combat the heat island effect.
• To create distinctive spaces that reinforce sense of place and local identity.
• To consider limited financial resources.
• To create a stronger visual connection and access to the River and between Silkstream and Montrose Parks.
Issues Challenges and Outcomes
One of the principal challenges has been to use greenspace to connect two markedly different residential neighbourhoods – the diverse Burnt Oak community and the new community moving to the Colindale Hospital regeneration site.
Arkwood used a variety of different engagement methodologies to develop a dialogue with both communities and have used the project to develop an enhanced set of community aspirations
for public realm, including a fresh impetus for volunteering.
The design responds to the financial constraints of the Council having progressively less resource to apply to greenspace management in the context of its current medium-term financial strategy. Consequently, the design developed for the park is robust, easy to maintain with materials selected based on whole lifecycle costs. Well considered design ensures this objective is achieved without being at the expense of design quality of innovation.
The project will naturalise the stream edge to allow the stream valley to function more effectively as a bio-diversity corridor.
The scheme will create a better visual connection with the River and visually connect both sites as one Parkland.
Services
• Landscape design from concept to implementation (RIBA Stage C-L)
• Management and Maintenance Plan
• Stakeholder consultation
• Funding applications
• Contract administration (ongoing)
