Fleetwood Food Collective by Jenny Lee from Oxford Brookes University

Fleetwood Food Collective, Lancashire, was presented at the AT Awards live finals on 20 September 2023 to a jury comprising Simon Allford, Esther Robinson Wilde, Ed Jarvis, Amin Taha, Patrick Bellew, and Chair Lee Mallett. Read about how the project has stood the test of time.

Credit: Jenny Lee

Fleetwood Food Collective by architecture student Jenny Lee of Oxford Brookes University explores the regeneration of a disused Victorian hospital in the Lancashire town of Fleetwood. Aimed at reducing urban deprivation and increasing access to education and jobs, the scheme includes a community food hall, community kitchen and community food garden, as well as a culinary and hospitality school, and the relocated Fleetwood Education Centre.

The design focuses on preserving as much of the existing building as possible, while ensuring efficiency and flexibility for the new food-hub functions. Four major interventions comprise demolition of a single-storey section to the rear of the courtyard, facilitating expansion of a vibrant community garden and improved daylighting; removal of the second-floor roofs to create a large community food garden and greenhouse; partial removal of the first-floor concrete slab to form a welcoming open space for the community food hall; and increasing window openings to double-height size for better daylighting, ventilation and views out.

Credit: Jenny Lee

“The interventions not only tackle the limitations of the deep floor plan and lack of natural light, but also the viability of reusing a building of this size and in particular the costs of repurposing such a large floor area,” explains Lee. Material passports will allow existing structure, fabric and fittings to be reused either on site or in nearby projects.

“Although the Hospital does not have listed status, which would safeguard it from demolition, it nevertheless holds significant community and social value, as well as high embodied carbon,” says Lee. “Finding a new use for the building is crucial on many levels, and is an example of the kinds of challenges towns will face with similar structures in the future.”