RCKa has completed The Granville, a community-focused enterprise hub in north London

Buildings.

Photos
Jakob Spriestersbach, Kit Oates

RCKa has completed The Granville, a mixed-use workspace and community hub in Kilburn, north London. Housed in a nineteenth-century church hall owned by Brent Council, the £650,000 project was supported by the GLA’s London Regeneration Fund. It provides affordable workspace for local entrepreneurs, and incorporates a number of existing functions, including a childrens’ centre and community kitchen. The open-plan spaces are intended to encourage interaction between workers, fostering creative collaboration and a supportive communal environment.

Axonometric floor plans

The practice was involved from the outset, setting out a commercially viable long-term vision for the scheme, which enabled capital funding to be secured and a new future for the building to be realised. It also worked closely with key project stakeholders, both online and in person, at public consultation events and one-to-one workshops.

Buildings.

Two key strategic moves open the building up to the community and breathe new life into the interior. The first is a brightly coloured public entrance and arrival sequence that reintegrates the existing gardens and delivers visitors into the heart of the building, while simultaneously resolving complex access issues. The second is an open and welcoming public ‘living room’ and community cafe, which rationalise the circulation space and increase flexibility where previously there had been only cellular rooms.

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