Canoe Centre, Lea Valley, Haringey

Leisure & Hospitality

Location:

The project is located at Stonebridge Lock in the Lea Valley.

The Clients Brief:

The client asked GFA to design a new sports centre for boating on the Lea River and bike rental plus spaces for community activity including meetings, educational visits from schools and a Honey extraction facility.

Architect’s response to the brief:

The architectural idea is to construct a large roof and under this roof place two containers, a clear formal differentiation of the various activities of the center. One container houses the boats and the other contains facilities for staff; a space for community center activities for the ‘Friends of Tottenham Marshes’ and flexible un-programmed spaces.

The idea of the roof is provide both shelter and diminish the building’s impact on nature; to dissolve the boundary between nature and a building achieved through the openness of the solution. There is an aspiration to limit the impact of human occupation on this site.

The idea of a structure being both adaptable through its modularity (add on or remove bays for example) and the ability to pack up and remove the structure from the site has a great appeal both conceptually and environmentally.

The building is designed as a pavilion. The appeal of pavilions is associated both with their casual and informal space planning and open plan arrangements; their open structure that can be programmed in many ways; their permeability to the environment and the experimental nature of their construction. Pavilions take us back to the idea of camping on a site, being closer to nature, a kind of ideal simplicity.

Architectural services provided:

GFA were responsible for the design of this building which is currently going through stakeholder consultation with the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, the Canal and River Boat Trust, the local authority, Haringey and the local community including the ‘Friends of Tottenham Marshes’.

Architect: Graham Ford Architects

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