Brent Cross Town, Argent Related’s and Barnet Council’s 180-acre, £7bn neighbourhood, has opened its first building – The Visitor Pavilion. The 8,000 square foot temporary space was designed by Moxon Architects and specialist engineers Expedition, with the fit-out by Woods Bagot and construction by Red Construction. The Visitor Pavilion incorporates a new café, alongside an exhibition space, designed by dn&co, showcasing the vision for the new park town, its homes, workspaces, leisure and community spaces. Visitors will also be able to experience the future homes of Brent Cross Town in two show apartments on the upper floors.
The striking timber-framed building serves as the entrance to Claremont Way, NW2 and new culinary offerings. Karma Bread bakery and Cricklewood Coffee Roasters are set to open early in the New Year, along with a new pizzeria. Both brands are locally-based or owned and share a focus on local economic development, offering employment and training opportunities. Each of the new occupiers combines production and distribution with a customer-facing offer, ensuring that they can successfully flex to meet varying customer demands whilst maintaining a daytime amenity for the local area.
At The Visitor Pavilion, the ground floor space includes the new locally run public café, Spruce & Larch, which will incorporate plants that customers can buy. The space is also designed as a gallery for exhibitions and events, with a permanent exhibition about the Brent Cross Town development and one of the large-scale neighbourhood models. It will be a space for Brent Cross Town to host events and support local initiatives. Upstairs are meeting rooms and more display spaces, and an open-air viewing terrace with views across the whole of the development. Outside, is a beautifully planted garden area, created by Townshend Landscape Architects.
The Visitor Pavilion embodies Brent Cross Town’s pledge to be net-zero by 2030. It is designed with low impact materials, including Glulam beams and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) prefabricated panels, chosen for their lowered embodied carbon footprint, and faster build time which generates less construction waste. Off-site manufacture and energy-efficient operating systems were chosen, and all materials have been considered for reusability or recycling once the structure is dismantled.
The Visitor Pavilion and Claremont Way lead into the new Exploratory Park, designed by East architects and recently won a New London Architecture design award. This area is set to come alive with events and markets, as the new town centre is constructed around it.
Nick Searl, Partner of Argent Related said: “The opening of The Visitor Pavilion and the announcement of exciting new local retailers, are very exciting milestones for Brent Cross Town. We are looking forward to welcoming local people into the new space and to the new restaurants, cafés and bakery which will deliver great food and experiences for the community from the very beginning of the development.”
Councillor Daniel Thomas, Leader of Barnet Council, said: “With the first indoor community space, and a host of new shops about to open on Claremont Way, it’s an exciting time for Barnet’s biggest ever regeneration programme. With a focus on supporting independent businesses and local recruitment, it’s good to see community at the heart of the Brent Cross Town development. I hope the new Visitor Pavilion will encourage people to come and find out more about the future plans for the area.”
Tim Murray, Director of Moxon Architects said: “A closely coordinated collaborative effort was required to deliver The Visitor Pavilion for Brent Cross Town, not least because the design and majority of the construction occurred offsite during the lockdown at the height of the pandemic. The predominant use of timber as a structural, finishing and weathering material contributes to the sequestration of carbon in the building fabric and defines the building’s appearance. Every aspect of this building has been designed for long term durability and ease of repurposing in the future: whether to enable the adaptation of the structure for alternative uses or to dismantle and reuse valuable materials for new buildings down the line. The principles of the circular economy have governed each stage of the design and specification process, with offsite manufacturing minimising waste and the incorporation of recycled material into the substructure and the building envelope.”
Alessandro Maccioni, Associate Director, Expedition, said: “Being a temporary structure, circularity and low carbon design principles were fundamental to design team decisions from the outset. The resulting pavilion is a beautiful and unique timber structure that creates an environment that promotes wellbeing and will serve the local community.”
James Colbourne, Founder of Cricklewood Coffee Roasters, added: “From the very beginning the fantastic community of North West London has been an enormous support to Cricklewood Coffee Roasters, so I’m really excited to be part of the Brent Cross Town regeneration and look forward to welcoming everyone to our new home.”
Tami Isaacs Pearce, Karma Bread, commented: “To be part of the regeneration and development of a new community is such an honour and an incredible opportunity for Karma Bread. We value community and the rich cultural tapestry that it’s built on, which is why I think there is such synergy between Argent Related’s vision for Brent Cross Town and Karma Bread’s ethos. To have a bakery built for me is like a dream come true. We will finally be able to get our much-loved product out to many more people and I will also hold a small school and get back to teaching again. To be at Brent Cross Town from the start and to see it being built from the ground up is incredibly exciting.”
