Our brief was to consider the re-use and rehabilitation of the former PC World retail unit located on Fife Road in Kingston Upon Thames. This adaptive re-use project demonstrates my approach to urban regeneration through a mixed-use scheme and urban farming.
I proposed a co-workspace, green-space and organic cafe. A small enclave between Kingston Station and Kingston Market Place, offering space to work and relax. This mixed-use space includes an organic cafe, internal garden, co-working space, talk-space, meeting rooms, private offices, urban farm and open-air garden. The buildings’ concrete frame was designed to exclude natural light, air and engagement with nature; so, to create a meaningful and healthy environment, the space has become more open and fluid.
The area around Kingston was an orchard in the late 18th/ early 19th century, influencing me to create a self-sufficient building, using urban farming units, driven by an Aquaponics system, to provide salad greens for the organic cafe- everything consumed in the building is grown in the building.
The Urban farm and garden are designed for co-workers to visit upon their ‘Walk In The Greenhouse’ up the delicate, almost invisible steel staircase, accessed only through curiosity, to enjoy a view of the building and its mechanics. The glass structure of the roof and rear walls connects the building to its surroundings and nature by bringing the outside, in. The copper clad rooms projecting out of the facade and into the greenhouse reflect sunlight during the day, bringing the building to life and contrasting with the interior green wall and planters to add warmth to the existing concrete structure.
By transforming the space socially, economically and environmentally, a sustainable, unique and new working neighbourhood will be envisioned, filled with hard-workers, avid gardeners and environmentally conscious people.
My proposal is established firmly through research of the urban context but has developed with a distinct contrast to the sites existing fabric.