Clitterhouse
Farm Café
Location: London, UK
Client: Our Yard at Clitterhouse Farm
Architect: Office for Crafted Architecture (OfCA)
Status: Completed 2020
Awards: Shortlisted for the Open City Stewardship Awards 2021
Our Yard at Clitterhouse Farm is a grassroots project working to protect historic Victorian farm outbuildings in Cricklewood and transform the entire site into a vibrant and sustainable community hub.
Background
Local residents set up the organisation in 2013 to protect the buildings from being demolished as part of a wider regeneration scheme. They are now one of a few remaining heritage assets in the area.
Project
The original farmhouse needed refurbishing to create a new, small community café known as Clitterhouse Farm Café. It is designed by Billy Adams, Freddie Wiltshire and OfCA.
The café joins an award-winning garden and nature space, as well as workshops for small businesses, as a community focal point.
Challenges
As a truly grassroots organisation with little to no funding, the project had a very small budget and the solution therefore needed to be cost efficient.
The architects were also going to build the structure, so its construction had to be simple as well as meeting the client’s aesthetic aspirations for the building.
Solution
We spent a lot of time really getting to know the brief and working with the architect to brainstorm the best solution.
As the café is located between two other farm buildings, we made sure that they could withstand any additional loading without requiring expensive repairs.
The final design employed a steel frame with concrete bearing slab, and a timber roof and timber cladding.
Drawing on our business relationships, a contractor agreed to provide casings for foundations for free.
