West Hendon Playing Fields Design Contest
Designing a transformational greenspace for the local community
About The Competition
Acknowledging that this is first and foremost a park project, the London Borough of Barnet has selected the Landscape Institute as a partner to help stage and manage the contest. This arrangement also reflects the aim that the design teams entering the contest will be led by a landscape architect. This competition is looking for your innovative ideas and proposals to work with and exploit the unique constraints and opportunities of the site in order to design a transformational greenspace for the local community.
The contest asks entrants to develop ideas for re-imagining the park in order to transform it into a popular, well-used destination.
The West Hendon Playing Fields (WHPF) Project aims to deliver significant improvements to a flagship greenspace within the London Borough of Barnet. Through improvements to the quality of the park, the introduction of a community sports hub, assorted indoor and outdoor recreational facilities, and improvements to connectivity within and around the site, the Council is aiming to create a premier open space within North West London for both residents and visitors alike.
Entrants should consider how their proposals contribute to the evolving discussion about the role that green spaces will play in creating better places to live; how access to good quality green space can help to address issues that our communities are facing; and how to combat climate change.
Entrants should refer to the various background documents and drawings available in the Resources section, which will give a comprehensive overview of the local area, immediate site context, opportunities, and constraints.
The design team should be led by a Chartered Landscape Architect (Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute or an equivalent international Landscape body) or a Landscape Institute registered practice.
There are four overarching themes that entrants should consider and incorporate into their proposals:
- Climate change resilience
- Health and wellbeing
- Inclusive and accessible
- Biodiverse
There are eight site-specific objectives which entrants should consider and address as part of their entry:
- Create an attractive, welcoming park with a strong and distinctive identity
- Built infrastructure to be removed and replaced with a new building – the Community Sports Hub
- Existing facilities will be improved or replaced
- The park will be well connected - access to the park will be improved; entrances will be upgraded; links to the neighbouring communities improved and there will be good internal connections
- Circulation routes will be improved
- Drainage will be improved so that no pitches or routes are inaccessible due to flooding
- Proposals should be capable of being managed coherently
- The rejuvenated park will realise opportunities for revenue generation which can be used to fund the maintenance of the park
The contest will run in two stages.
Stage One
Stage One is an ideas contest that invites entrants to showcase their visionary thinking. The contest represents a unique opportunity to contribute to the evolving discussion about the role that green spaces will play in creating better places to live, how access to good quality green space can help to address issues that our communities are facing ,and how to combat climate change.
The contest is open to suitably accredited professional teams. It is not open to student teams. Entries will be judged against a set of criteria defined in the brief. The scoring will be undertaken by a judging panel and the three highest scoring entries will be shortlisted and invited to proceed to Stage Two of the contest, where they will develop their proposals in more detail.
There will be no formal accompanied site visit for Stage One, however, entrants are encouraged to visit the site to familiarise themselves with it.
Stage Two
Stage Two will consist of developing the design and submitting details of your team and process.
On submission of a compliant entry, the shortlisted entrants will be awarded an honorarium of £10,000.00. The LBB intends to award a contract to the winning entrant for the development of the winning scheme up to RIBA Work Stage 3 and including the submission of a planning application.
