Forgotten Spaces

The story of the Heathrow villages, and of Transition Heathrow, resonates with many people in many places. Here’s an interesting project inspired by our community done by architects Andy Faulkner and Sam Clark in the Royal Institute of British Architecture’s “Forgotten Spaces” competition.

Called ‘Market Garden’, the project would like to see the Great Barn in Harmondsworth returned to a thriving focus for the community. As the architects explain:

“Harmondsworth is in danger of becoming disconnected and forgotten. The village, on the peripheries of Greater London, is currently bound by transport infrastructure on three sides: due North is the M4 motorway, due West the M25, and due South Heathrow Airport. Recent plans to expand Heathrow would complete the enclosure, effectively making a land-locked island of Harmondsworth. 200,000 vehicles drive past every day, and 90 million passengers fly over each year”.

“The Great Barn is reopened, celebrating its past, and re-connecting it with its land. This is an opportunity to further encourage community gardening and local food production. The barn is a place for public events and fairs, and its reclaimed land is open for large festivals and food production, and also provides a potential new or additional home for the ‘Grow Heathrow’ project, a group of community activists in residence at a former nursery in nearby Sipson, threatened to be demolished.”

And it would look a little something like this…

Market Garden has been shortlisted in the competition – we’re really looking forward to finding out the winners on October 19th at Somerset House! To find out more about Andy and Sam’s proposal, and to read about the other entrants in the competition, check out the Riba website.