Category | Mixed-Use, Office, Agricultural, Leisure, Restauration.

Location | Scarborough, Kent, UK

Site surface | 1100m2

Timeline | 2025

Status | Conceptual

Software | Revit, Adobe Suite

Type | Academic

CO-LIBRI

Co-, prefix.

1. Latin co-: "joint, jointly, together"

2. "auxiliary, helping"

Source: wordreference.com

BRIEF

In a context of political and societal stasis despite the climate crisis, how can architecture respond to the need for digital, agricultural and social independence and circularity?

2040 CONTEXT | New construction materials are scarce. Climatic conditions require solutions for extreme weather. The digital world is prominent. Data is a currency and privacy is a luxury. All aspects of life are managed digitally, including transport, healthcare, and education.

The cost of food has reached its peak. European populations leave urban environments, which are now overheating. People seek for more opportunities to grow their own food in rural and semi-rural areas.

Loneliness and anxiety have become two of the most deadly conditions in the Western world. Education has become a business. The pace of life causes disconnection between people. People are craving simplicity and collaboration.

MANIFESTO | Circularity continues to be essential, whether socially, environmentally or economically. Independence from big corporations has become the only solution for people to regain freedom of choice, comfortable living standards, mental and physical health. Retrofitting buildings, adapting structures, and rethinking construction materials are minimum standards of construction. Community growing, permaculture and regenerative agriculture is the key to food independence. Decentralisation of data, food independence, and multi-generational community living can address several major cotemporary challenges, at a small scale. When multiplied, self-sufficient villages, become self-sufficient regions and countries. Colibri is a project of hope, community, exchange, and responsibility.

CLIENT

Multi-Generational and diverse community of 20 people, living within 700m or 10min walk of the site. All either in pursuit of or in need of more human connection, accessible resources and space, a growing garden with fruit, herbs and vegetables, and a long term community to exchange, lean on and grow with.

PROGRAMME

Market Garden | Semi-pubic community greenhouse Production of herbs, vegetables and fruit

Micro DC | Private community decentralised servers Provision of internet storage for the community

Co-Working Spaces | Private community hot desks, hall, and library Facilitate community remote work and meetings

Community Kitchen | Semi-public community kitchen Facilitates food preservation and prEparation (community and small business)

Common Pantry | Semi-private storage of fresh, dried and preserved food (community and small business) Provision of storage for the community and a grocery

Dry Room | Transformation of food Production of dried seeds, fruit, vegetables and herbs.

External Garden and Terraces | Semi-public vegetable, herbs and fruit gardens, and Community and Kitchen/Grocery Terraces Provides food and water

SITE

The site is in Scarborough, a hamlet located at the intersection of roads connecting Wouldham and Burham, in Kent. The Burham and Wouldham ward, in Tonbridge and Malling district, has a population of ca. 4000 people (Census 2021).

The Scarborough barn is one of the buildings in the hamlet that can be found on maps dated 1900. The original building was part of a farm, made of stone and timber.

Scarborough is situated: 1km from Burham; 2km from Wouldham; 4km from The Friars, Aylesford; 10km from Maidstone 50km; from Elephant & Castle, London.

TYPOLOGIES | The site is located in a rural and agricultural area. The neighbouring villages and towns are mainly residential. The closest grocery shop is in Wouldham, 20min walk away from Scarborough. Other typologies of buildings within 30min walk include some community halls and activities, pubs, agricultural and educational buildings.

TOPOGRAPHY | The site is located at 54.5m above sea level, approximatly 35m above the closest newly built Wouldham residential development.

DATA CENTRES IN KENT | Kent has a total of five data centres, the closest buildings located in Maidstone at 10.5km from Scarbourough. They are owned by a Cybersecurity company, a IT services, and colocation services providers.

CONCEPT

The project was developed with a few essential factors:

• Retain a maximum of the existing form;

• Design in response to technological, community and agricultural requirements;

• Design in response to the architectural and geographical context;

• Architectural party to embrace a maincirculation axis;

• Repurposed materials and celebrate salvage materials.

   

  The iterative process was initiated with organigrams, working models and the use of ribbons running along and wrapping around the existing volumes, and the concept of gradient of light, sound and humidity.

In a context of material scarcity, the importance of reusing materials, transforming systems and products into other systems and products, is essential. The materiality of this project is focussed on making use of discarded agricultural parts, using natural materials, and retaining as much of the existing built form as possible.

While referring to natural ventilation and gardens microclimates, the Australian example of botanical and acclimatisation gardens' ferneries caught my interest for their natural envelope, letting partial natural light in.

In parallel, I came across salvaged old sieves from combined harvesters. Looking at the combine harvester parts, the intention was to re-purpose the sieves for the envelope and living walls and drums into aeroponic growing drums.

As combine harvester sieves come in various sizes, perforations and finishes, these differences are celebrated in ways that contribute to their new function - letting light through, growing plants through or  for screening.

The living walls become hosts to flowers and insects, all around the year.

CIRCULARITY

A holistic approach to the project’s sustainability was essential from the first design iterations. One of the key aspects was the energetic independence, involving both waste heat recovery and natural cooling system, and a rainwater harvesting system.

The Barn hosts the self-contained micro data centre IT racks which produce heat and require cooling for good functioning. A cooling/heating strategy supplies cooling to the IT racks, heating to the dry room and other rooms in the Haven. A rainwater harvesting strategy is also in place to collect and use water for the agricultural and domestic use.

Running some estimations on the Community Haven’s energy demand, it was established that the solar PVs on the agricultural land nearby, belonging to one of the community families, could power all electricity demands.

The 4 IT rack units of servers can fully heat the glasshouse and the dry room in the summer, while in winter there is enough waste heat to cover the more demanding heat requirements for the glasshouse while there isn’t enough waste heat left to heat the full dry room – which works out well since the drying process of food should be done during the summer and autumn seasons ahead of winter.

PROGRAMME

The PROGRAMME of the Community Haven consists of

• External garden and terraces

• A Market Garden in the glasshouse

• A Dark Garden under the circulation axis in the glasshouse

• Co-working spaces in the barn

• A community hall in the barn

• A micro DC next to the barn staircase

• A kitchen in the annex

• A pantry in the annex

• A dry room and storage on the first floor of the barn

The envelope’s perforated panels are used in their existing salvaged conditions. For the purpose of this exercise, the samples of the agricultural sieves were used, with either an oblong perforation with a grey metallic finish, a rust finish on the small circular perforations, or a grey metallic finish with large circular perforations.

Using a gradient from the darker side to the brighter side of the building, keeping the grey on the existing building side and the rust on the side the exposed and visible when driving from Burham. The large perforations are used for the bi-folding shutters, which can be more of less open creating various levels of shading and privacy.

The building can be sectioned into different parts essential to its structure, envelope and spaces:

1/ The envelope made of reclaimed agricultural perforated panels and glass.

2/ The roof structure, both existing purlins and rafter in the barn and new rafters in the glasshouse and annex.

3/ The glasshouse structural cross laminated portal frames on pad foundations.

4/ The insulation layer wrapped around the existing buildings.

5/ The existing stone walls with new perforations.

6/ The internal partitions, either stud walls or glazed.

7/ The underground garden lined with gabion basket walls.

Whether existing or new, the structure is exposed internally.

The Micro DC on one end of the building is directly below the dry room, and both can be seen from the staircase than run along them. There is a lift to access the first floor where the dry room storage and the external cooling unit are placed either sides of the dry room.

The community hall is a double height space visible from the northern entrance and co-working space, and from the first floor. It also is visually connected to the market garden. It is a space where the community can work, meet, eat, party, and exchange.

The market garden is in the new glasshouse, between the barn and the annex. Its height is significant reaching almost 9m from the lower level to the roof. The aeroponic drums and the growing beds are accessible from the staircases, while the circulation axis gives access to planters and bigger plants along the existing stone wall. The dark garden is a small space accessible from a door between the two staircases.

The annex is visually connected to the glasshouse and is equipped with a lot of storage and a pantry. It is a space where the community can cook, store exchange and learn.

MATERIALITY

The material palette of the Community Haven consists of:

• Existing materials, retained and repaired, including flint stone walls, roman lime render and coble stones.

• New sustainably sourced materials, such as cross laminated timber, sheep’s wool and glulam.

• Architectural reclaimed materials: scaffold timber boards, bricks, and tiles.

• Agricultural reclaimed materials: combine harvester sieves.

A HAVEN FOR A COMMUNITY

The importance of the circulation axis and the various functions of the building is translated in the internal views.

In line with the first project [402] re-assembly exercise, I have drawn the inside of four spaces crossed by the main axis starting from one of the entrances, on the DC side all the way through to the other entrance on the kitchen side.

View 1/ After a day of remote work in the co-working space, the mother from Household 1 is stepping upstairs to fetch some dried goods to cook later that day. She walks past the servers and sees the drying herbs and fruit drying. From the entrance door, we can see into the community hall and all the way along the circulation axis.

View 2/ Meanwhile, elderly woman from Household 5 is sitting in the community hall with girl from Household 1, helping her do her homework before heading to the kitchen. From the community hall, we can see into the market garden all the way into the kitchen and out.

View 3/ One of the Friends from Household 9 is harvesting some herbs for dinner. From the market garden, we can see into the kitchen space and the other entrance door.

View 4/ In the Kitchen, Household 8 father and another friend of Household 9 are having a glass of wine before getting started on the dinner a few of them will be having in the community hall later that day.

We can see the third friend from Household 9 outside the door before she comes in to join them.

The layering of spaces helps connect the spaces with activities blooming around the circulation axis. The design is a direct response to the brief providing space for life, as independently lived as a community might wish to, and as independent as the context requires.