The Parkrose team were recently invited to be part of the incredible Paper Garden project; this ambitious build in London’s Canada Water was constructed using circular principles and occupies an industrial shed once used as a printworks for the Daily Mail.
Forming part of the wider Canada Water re-development by British Land, The Paper Garden was designed for Global Generation, an educational charity which works with children and young people, businesses, residents and families in Camden, Islington, and Southwark to create healthy, integrated and environmentally responsible communities.
The Paper Garden was constructed from a wide collection of surplus and unwanted building products: The floors were made from 300 doors reclaimed from a former police station, the windows were sourced from rejected stock donated by Scandinavian supplier NorDan, and the interior plywood panelling came from surplus materials at an HS1 site. The cordwood walls, a heritage wall construction method dating back to the 1600’s using stacked logs and lime mortar infill, span 3 sides of the building and were built using old oak railway sleepers donated by Network Rail and logs sourced from Epping Forest, taken from trees that were either naturally felled or taken down as part of forestry maintenance. Low-tech construction methods were used wherever possible to ensure that they could be easily learned and were accessible for volunteers and young people to use.
This labour of love, designed by Jan Kattein Architects, was made possible through the contributions of Aecom, Watermans, Sweco, Mace, Wates, Galldris, BRCS, and 3,000 volunteers. The Parkrose team were delighted to be part of this great team, constructing the exterior workshop wall while on site completing their fit-out works on the Canada Water Dock Office project for Wates Construction.