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Client

Barratt London

Location

Hayes, London

Project Date

2017-2020

Site Area

12 ha

Status

In Construction

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Victorian Chocolate Factory becomes Green Urban Area

The Former Nestlé Factory, near Hayes and Harlington Crossrail Station, is a heritage-led regeneration and industrial intensification project led by Makower Architects; combining over 1,300 new homes, extensive new public realm and a logistics hub for SEGRO. Makower Architects’ role included Masterplanner and Lead Architect of the core site for Barratt London and L&Q, as well as coordinating multiple plots held by other landowners for the GLA-led wider area vision to create a connection from the Station to the heart of the site. Makower Architects where also design architect for 500 homes, from Concept through to Completion.

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Block B
Block A

The 12 hectare site, known as ‘The Factory in the Garden’, has played a major role in community life since 1913 and is a Conservation Area containing 4 locally listed buildings, and our designs include an adaptive re-use of Eugen Sandow’s original chocolate factory, which first opened in 1913, and closed a century later. We have also incorporated found objects from the factory into a distinctive play and public art strategy, drawing the factory history into the final place identity.

The Factory in the Garden

The overall masterplan concept is to interlock residential uses with employment, and contemporary buildings with heritage. The development opens up this once closed, but very green site to public access, including a new 200m frontage along the Grand Union Canal. At the heart of the project is a new community park, incorporating the historic green spaces of the Factory. We have divided the site into five, well-proportioned urban blocks, that are subdivided to create a street geometry aligned to the old factory layout whilst fitting naturally into the non-parallel geometries of canal and railway. Stretching across all plots is a central spine, linking the historic green spaces of the Factory to the Station, and acting as a primary gathering space and pedestrian route. The plot structure and main movement network creates a series of smaller pocket parks, playgrounds and linear gardens; and the entire site is wrapped by a 1.3km Trim Trail.

Historic Green Spaces

The building edges are enlivened by community uses, including a Gym (in the historic Canteen) and a new local museum. Front doors run along all streets, and at-grade parking is concealed behind street level duplex units, with living spaces spilling out onto large communal gardens at podium level. Generous double-height entrance lobbies frame views between the street and gardens. The blocks have a prevailing north-south grain, minimising north-facing units, while the massing is modulated to create a diverse skyline, rising up to the four splayed towers, marking the North edge of the site.

Responsive Geometries

© 2024 Makower Architects

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Makower Architects
24–26 Great Suffolk Street
London, SE1 0UE

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