Information about this scheme

Blue House Yard provides work space, public space, entertainment space and learning space on a key town centre site in the heart of Wood Green. A converted office building, 9 artisan worksheds and a double-decker cafe enclose a public square which hosts a lively lunchtime market. The timber-frame worksheds - largely built by volunteers and apprentices using local material suppliers - are de-mountable and can be re-erected on another site once the town centre masterplan is implemented in 5 years' time. Blue House Yard has transformed what was a disused car park near Wood Green tube station into a vibrant and creative business community. The speed at which the space has been occupied demonstrates a real need for this type of development. Although its initial life expectancy is just five years, the aim is to not only offer an interesting, humanly-scaled place to work, shop and eat, but demonstrate a strategy for future regeneration which will support local business and start-ups. It was clear that the community have been engaged throughout the project, both during the construction (which involved students from the local college), and in the first set of tenants for the work and shop spaces. The design embodies a meanwhile/make-do ethic: simple fixes to the existing building and found materials for the shop units, the aspiration to make an interesting civic space clear in the layout.