New Parish council Park Maintenance Facilities

A new facilities building for storage of maintenance vehicles and equipment, workshop and changing/ day facilities for employees.

The building proposed as a lightweight structure sitting lightly on the ground using timber frame and having a sustainable drainage system. Heating is proposed from a solar thermal panel.

The architecture creates a simple cost effective form that can be flexible in use over time and be constructed out of hard wearing materials that blend into the park setting.

Conceived as a low energy, low impact structure that is friendly to its environment and the people who will work in it. The building will give a base of operation to the maintenance crews, providing basic facilities including kitchen, changing rooms etc. Also storing the large equipment such as tractors and cutters. A full workshop is also included to look after the equipment. The building will be low maintenance, robust, cost effective and fast to build.

Contemporary building methods are proposed, using timber frame allows a lightweight structure not to disrupt the heavily wooded surroundings, timber frame also is a carbon neutral and renewable building material. Other cladding material will allow it to blend into the park landscape. Large openings allow maximum light into the people part of the building with sliding doors making the building secure after hours. The use of contemporary materials and methods allows the building to be built very quickly further reducing the impact to the maintenance operation and park users.

Associated low technology sustainable proposals are sustainable urban drainage, where the water from the roof drains into a soak pit and not the main drainage system allowing to help alleviate flood threat. The water can be heated by a solar thermal panel, extra heating in the winter via a contemporary efficient double burning log burner using the abundant natural resource of dead trees from the parks.

Would you like to know know more about building and green issues, email ge@yooparchitects.co.uk or call 0208 954 6291