Project: Evergreen Community Garden Centre
Location: Oldham, Lancashire
Value: Tbc

The scheme is for a community run horticultural centre producing organic vegetables and plants, it also contains an education centre focusing on sustainable and environmental practices.

The building houses three different community groups with different purposes, one is a retail nursery selling plants cultivated on the site, the other an education project dealing wth issues of horticulture, sustainability and environment. The third is a cycle project focusing on sustainable local transport.

The design of the building and landscape together reflect the values of the groups, being conceived around a core concern for the environmental impact of human activity. Large south facing windows maximise passive heating by solar gain. Passive ventilation and natural light is also provided from the south aspect opening out onto the cultivated landscape along with rooflights deeper into the building plan. A green "living" roof provides high levels of insulation for the building together with additional vegetation that has a dual purpose of absorbing carbon dioxide from the amosphere and attenuating rainwater flow into the drainage system.

The simple form affords economic construction allowing costs to be redirected into sustainable features. The construction proposes traditional methods combined with the modern benefit of off-site fabrication by using a timber framed structure that is to be clad with masonry and filled with insulation composed of recycled material.

The landscape scheme uses a mixture of polytunnels and raised beds to provide the correct growing conditions for the various species being cultivated, raised beds also allow for greater accessibility, being at a convenient height for wheelchair users and older people.