Waltham Forest Town Hall
Walthamstow
Metropolitan Workshop were appointed through a partnership between Countryside Properties, One Housing Group and Waltham Forest Council to redevelop the Waltham Town Hall campus site. Metropolitan Workshop led the masterplan and in collaboration with Maccreanor Lavington and Gort Scott Architects, developed the detailed design for 5 new buildings on the site.
The proposal provides 433 new high-quality, mixed-tenure homes for local people 50% of which is affordable housing. It also creates new commercial and community spaces including a crèche and a cycle hub and new modern, fit for purpose civic building, consolidating existing Council offices from across the borough. The scheme prides itself on the refurbishment of the existing green spaces which include the front lawns to the Town Hall and new access routes to Chestnuts Fields located to the rear of the Town Hall. The spaces are flexible and multifunctional with a public realm led development for both residents, council officers and the public.
The vision for the development was to open up the site to become more welcoming to the public by providing new accessible pedestrian and cycle routes to promote seamless movement through the neighbourhood, whilst enhancing the legibility from new access points. The immediate context of the site which encompasses the Town Hall, and Assembly Hall are listed structures and therefore the relationship of new development to the heritage assets was of great importance to the architecture of the development to ensure a cohesive design strategy was embedded into the neighbourhood.
The development has been designed to promote a healthy living environment for the health and wellbeing of its occupants. The residential development is car-free and promotes cycling through the integration of over 800 secure cycle spaces. Healthy indoor air quality is ensured through the specification of materials with low volatile organic compound (VOC) content and the design of MVHR systems to control pollutants and provide fresh air to the dwellings. Operational energy efficiency was addressed through consideration of the London Plan energy hierarchy; primarily achieved by optimisation of the building fabric, creating a communal heat network with a hybrid energy system including electric ASHPs and gas boilers and renewable energy from roof-mounted PV panels.
Team: One Housing Group (Affordable housing partner) / Maccreanor Lavington (Architecture) / Gort Scott (Architecture) / Gross Max (Landscape) / Stantec (Structures, Civils, Transport, Ecology) / AWA (M&E) / Barton Wilmore (Planning) / Make:Good (Consultation) / Buro Happold (Security)
Status: Stage 3
"This is an incredible opportunity to build genuinely affordable housing with 50% affordable for local residents, and bring hundreds of employment opportunities to the borough through construction, supply chain and commercial and community uses"
