We worked with David Wilson Homes to deliver a section 106 commitment to provide a new country park pavilion and cafe for Great Denham in Bedfordshire.

New development within the parish will provide around 1,500 new homes. As part of this development, new education and community facilities, a new district centre and a new country park have been built to serve the new community and wider area.

Since the S106 Agreement was approved as part of the outline planning consent, the brief for the building has changed and Bedford Borough Council's Parks & Countryside’s involvement resulted in various changes to the initial design. The building developed from a specific changing facility to a country park pavilion incorporating many new features to serve the wider public community.

Thebuilding is predominantly a single storey structure with a feature 1.5 storey element. This part of the building addresses the vista of the Country Park from the south and accommodates much of the public areas within the building, including the café. The roof space accommodates a Park Rangers flat featuring panoramic views of the site and country park beyond.

The scale of the building was a key factor during the early stages of the design process. Initial feasibility models explored a contemporary design with large double height spaces. However, further pre-application discussions with Bedford Borough Council steered the design down a more traditional route in keeping with its environment and nearby future houses.

The internal layout of the building has been designed to incorporate two key functions; these include a country park visitor centre, and changing room facilities for the football / MUGA pitches. The building design accommodates these separate functions via a main entrance and centrally located lobby, from which the café and changing rooms are accessed. This facilitates ease of management of the two sides of the building and allows ease of access for all users to internal spaces and facilities. The two storey element of the proposal helps establish a building presence on site, whilst providing a café and kitchen facility on the ground floor and park ranger’s flat on the first floor.