Community Hubs
The Future for Sporting Facilities
Sport and leisure facilities have always been a place for people to come together. A space for all ages to be active at the same time, while spectators chat on sidelines and lives are discussed in social areas. They are already a natural community hub, promoting physical and mental wellbeing and we believe much more can be made of this.
For a long time now many sports and leisure complexes have had space for a sports massage therapist or physiotherapist to operate. A natural synergy of physical activity and physical health. Rarely do we see this coalescence extending to take in wider health care, or even non-healthcare, options.
And without that approach a trick is missed. Health Hubs, which incorporate moving planned and elective health care provision from hospital sites and into the heart of our community , allow a rounder experience and sharing of space which feed directly into the ambitions laid out in the recently published Fit for the Future 10-year NHS Plan.
Add in a cafe or restaurant, a library or community advice centre, a grocery shop or pharmacist and we see the formation of a fully round Community Hub, where local residents can access most of their daily needs.
The Community Hub
The government barely breathes mention in their plan of the essential component of movement and activity in health and fitness. But they do speak of neighbourhood health centres. With Community Hubs we can go one step further than the government’s ambition.
For many years the 15-minute neighbourhood concept has been mooted as the perfect way to create sustainable communities. Reducing reliance on cars, this planning ideal puts all these facilities and services within a 15-minute walk or cycle ride from residents homes. In turn this promotes a higher quality of life, with more likelihood of self powered travel.
It would be a mistake to believe this is just the idyll where residents choose to walk or cycle. The reality is, in densely populated areas there will be many who simply cannot afford to run a car or take public transport. They may have busy lives, with little leisure time, with sport and physical activity low down the list of priorities.
We cannot hope that every person visiting a Community Hub is struck by a desire to be more active. But we can hope that they inspire and open people’s eyes to the possibilities on offer.
Community Hubs must be a collaboration, meeting a genuine need through open consultation between residents, local authority and funding partners.
LK2 and the Community Hub
At LK2 we feel each large project is a step closer to a complete Community Hub. As we work on projects we continually vision up on what it can be.
Our deep knowledge of the sector means we know just how to take an idea for a small scale leisure facility to something far beyond its original plans, using our proven track record of unlocking significant grant funding from multiple stakeholders. Our previous projects showcase our ability to blend the transformation of underutilised space and facilities with cutting edge architectural design and build.
At Market Road, Islington we worked with conflicting requirements to deliver an energy-efficient development on the site of the first artificial pitches laid in London, providing up to date facilities, using the latest technologies in a £2.1 million redevelopment.
Whilst we took the £12 million brief for the Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre to a previously unimagined level with a fully community-centric facility, not only offering transformed sporting facilities but also a range of revenue streams in the form of meeting rooms, a cafe and a bustling family zone where children can learn new activities and families can socialise year round.
The Parklife Scheme is a collaboration between The FA, Premier League and Sport England to develop accessible facilities in the heart of communities, where pressures on the local game are greatest. In Middlesex we were proud to deliver the first London based ‘Parklife’ scheme facility at Rectory Park. Creating a space where work and play flourish side-by-side.
In Sunderland we were proud to deliver not one but three new multi-million-pound sporting hubs. With an investment of £14.2 million from the Football Foundation, a £6.7 million contribution from Sunderland City Council and additional partnership funding we crafted community facilities utilising the biggest ever investment into a portfolio of grassroots sporting facilities in the North-East.
And in Stamford we at LK2 took an unfeasible original project plan and created a Community Hub solution. By inviting New College Stamford (now called Stamford College) to become a key partner in the project we were able to design and deliver a comprehensive shared sport and education facility, using maximum grant alignment, crafted around a sustainable business plan.
The future for Community Hubs
Each of these projects reflect our commitment to the Community Hub model. At the time they came to life, we were one of only three architects on both the FA and Football Foundations, and Sport England Frameworks, highlighting the longstanding trust organisations have in us to advise, design and plan with confidence.
In future articles we will dive deeper into each of the individual projects above. Exploring the knowledge gleaned from each project as we continue to develop our model for community spaces of the future.