hambrook marshes activity centre

type. design project

stage. two

date. december 2017

description. ​

For this project, we had to propose a new building and associated landscape that were designed to form an activity centre offering opportunities for people, particularly adults, though not exclusively, to get fit through play and exercise. The volumes could be contained in no more than two parts but the parts must be connected. The building and landscape had to interact with the remains of the South Canterbury Hythe or Elham Valley Railway line on the Hambrook Marsh located beyond the West Gate Gardens. The railway line originated at Canterbury West and travelled to Folkestone, Dover & Hythe via Wincheap. It was opened in 188t and closed in 1947. Much of the proposed site is a flood plain so earth moving and water management had to form a part of the proposed landscaping and would affect the positioning of the proposal. The River Stour runs alongside the south side of the site and may rise by one metre annually. 

We had to design internal and external areas, spaces & volumes to allow a variety of activities to take place; I chose to design for yoga, tai chi, karate and judo, all of which required enough space for 10 people to participate in each activity; as well as kayaking and rowing, requiring a small pool to learn how to capsize with a capacity of 4 kayaks at any one time. 

With regards to the landscape we had include a kitchen garden that serves the cafe, and a link to the existing cycling route to enable connections with the City and two villages, Chartham and Chilham located to the west of Canterbury. The existing cycle route had to remain although its position could be altered; a cycle charging point had to be incorporated in the proposal. We also had to include 3 outside activities - I chose to include a sensory garden, a labyrinth, and a natural swimming pool in my proposal. We had to design a microclimate, an external space, so that human comfort can be achieved through the use of windbreaks, shading or thermal mass.

Hobbs, R. (2017, October). AR552 - Architecture Landscape. Retrieved January 2018.