The Venue on the Green

Forest Row
2017-2019

When we were asked to take on this project planning permission was already granted for a larger building, which was designed by another architect who we know and respect. He had grown tired of the painfully drawn out process and the Parish Council concluded after eight years of fund raising that they had to be more modest in their aims. The built scheme retains the original concept of a highly modelled entrance façade oriented off grid to face the Green. The roof, previously a mono-pitch, has been given greater emphasis by employing the geometry of a hyperbolic paraboloid. This has structural advantages and the form has echoes of the adjacent skate park. The primary function is a venue for local young people. With this in our thoughts we made the outside tough (galvanised metal and Rodeca cellular polycarbonate) and the interior gentle (almost entirely timber in Kerto and shuttering ply).

Design Team: Nic Pople, Sophie Woodhatch, Muneeb Ali Khan, George Sinclair.
Structural Engineers: Corbett Tasker
Project Manager: Don Sinclair
Contractor: Douch Partners

Awards: Sussex Heritage Trust Public and Community Award 2019

Photographs by George Sinclair

  • 07 317 external green
  • 04 317 external long portrait
  • 05 317 Skatepark
  • 09 317 external portrait
  • 13 317 internal side
  • 14 317 internal back
  • 16 317 internal front corner
  • 17 317 internal servery
  • 18 317 internal polycarbonate
  • 19 317 internal side windows
  • 00 317 model
  • 01 317 Planning Block Plan
  • 06 317 site landscaping
  • 08 317 South West Elevation
  • 09 317 Cross Section