Salford’s first ultra-low carbon community-constructed building that cost £950,000 is set to open its doors in 2025.
The regenerated Peel Park Pavilion has been hailed as one of the greenest buildings in Salford, offering an incredible new space in the local community.
Constructed by Community Little Hulton who teamed up with Architecture Unknown, the building will offer a vibrant new community space with a park café, offices, meeting rooms and a BMX pump track.
Community Little Hulton is the successor to Little Hulton Big Local which was part of 150 Big Local trusts who were allocated £1m each to spend on improving the lives of their residents.
The building will aim to improve the local community, and has been created using a zero-carbon, modular design system called “WikiHouse”.
A method that uses digital fabrication to create timber building components that can be assembled in hours, to millimetre precision.
The use of this system allowed the local community get involved and be apart of the build, with more than 100 volunteers from the local area have been down to lend a hand on the construction site.
In June 2024, around 60 children from the Lowry Academy and St Edmunds RC School helped to get construction underway.
Architecture Unknown first secured planning permission for the site in 2021, and after being severely delayed by Covid-19, the team began construction in April of this year.
The Peel Park Pavilion is due to soft open to the public at the start of January, with the centre officially opening in February 2025.
Charlie Butterwick, Director of Architecture Unknown, said: “The Peel Park Pavilion is community architecture at its finest. It has been a wonderful opportunity to create something integral, functional and beneficial for the whole area. A place that is purposeful and beautiful.
“Using WikiHouse for this design has meant the people of Little Hulton have been physically involved in the changes in their community, and that isn’t something we see enough in regeneration projects.
“This building truly belongs to all those who volunteered. I can’t wait to see it open and how it comes to life as everyone enjoys the space.”
Charlie continued: “ This project, more than any other, represents an opportunity to tell the world what we’re about and how we work differently to other architects. Our passion is community-led architecture.”
The involvement of local volunteers has been an added success to Community Little Hulton who have been working in this Salford park to invest in young lives since 2017.
The group have been focusing on providing opportunity for young people in Salford who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and children from deprived backgrounds.
Alison Jones from Community Little Hulton, who instructed Architecture Unknown for the project, said: “The Peel Park project will be an amazing community asset for the people of the Little Hulton.
“Architecture Unknown has put the people of Little Hulton and the centre’s purpose in the community at the heart of this design. It is an incredible space.”
The Peel Park Pavilion will host community activities such as craft and games groups, toddler and baby sessions, food clubs with advice and services for families and youth cafes for teenagers.
And in 2025 will hopefully aim to transform an unloved park building into a mixed-used space the whole area can benefit from.
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