Located Northwest of Hamstead Heath and adjacent to the Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area in Barnet, the site is occupied by an NHS doctors’ surgery, owned by the doctors who run and work in the facility. The existing building is not inclusive or accessible, nor does it meet modern healthcare standards. Itcannot accommodate the growing patient numbers or the changing approach to providing community care.

“Quite simply, our building is no longer fit for purpose. It isn’t fit for today’s needs and most definitely is not fit for the decades ahead. The community needs a better centre.” – Dr Karen Grossmark, Temple Fortune Health Centre owner.

The scheme proposes a new tiered four-storey building with a 567 sqm medical centre that occupies the ground level. Parking and plant areas have been designed in the basement with 11 residential units on floors 1-3 and a heavily planted communal roof garden above. The site requires the flats to be developed above to help fund the new, much-needed, health centre and ensure that the building maximises the potential of the site.

“The clients wanted a highly functional building, that allows them to continue to care for the community they have worked in for a long time and generate value to pay for the works through residential space. We wanted to meet this dual-use brief, whilst providing a building that recognises the textured and leafy nature of the context and makes a positive contribution to the local community”. Charles Bettes, GPAD Managing Director.

The Architecture

Care has been taken to ensure the proposals respond to the street, setting the building away from the boundary line and introducing a sculpted ground floor façade ensures privacy internally, whilst creating curved pockets along the street. These pockets are filled with planting that greens the area between pavement and building, enhances the street, and provides spaces for the public. An element of craft is introduced at a human scale through the patterned reconstituted stone facade.

The entrance to the health centre has been located to the corner and set in from the building line to provide a legible entry to the centre. The curve on this corner softens the mass and suits the shape of the site. This form is continued on the upper floors, which are set back from the ground floor, providing another opportunity for greening at the first-floor level and further reducing the impact of the building mass. These setbacks provide south-facing amenity space that is shielded from the street and the curved forms providerhythm to the building.

Environmental Impact

The building responds to the heritage of the area, whilst being clearly contemporary. It utilises durable materials such as reconstituted stone and brick paired with robust junctions that will age and weather well, ensuring longevity. Fourteen new trees with many plants are being proposed across the site at various levels pushing biodiversity and urban greening. The combination of planting and materials was selected to ground the scheme within the context and provide interest at the upper levels of the building.

A combination of passive measures, high-efficiency services, utilisation of heat pumps and consideration ofthe fabric have been designed into the scheme and will be developed during detailed design to minimise CO2 emissions.

Project Address:  23 Temple Fortune Lane, London, NW11 7TE

Project Team:
Development Manager​​​​​: ACRE
Planning Consultant​​​​​​: MJP Planning
Affordable Housing Statement​​​​: Turner Morum
Air Quality Assessment​​​​​: Redmore
Daylight and Sunlight Assessment​​​​: Herrington
Drainage Strategy and SUDs report: ​​​​The PES (EB7)
Ecological Assessment (incl. BNG)​​​: ​Green Shoots
Energy Assessment (incl. BREEAM)​​​​: MWL 
Utilities Assessment​​​​​​: MWL
Fire Statement​​​​​​​: CHPK
Heritage Impact Assessment​​​​​: Heritage Collective
Land Contamination Assessment​​​​: Ensafe
Landscaping Scheme (incl. UGF)​​​​: John Davies Landscaping
Noise Impact Assessment: ​​​​​ALN Acoustics
Statement of Community Involvement: ​​​Local Dialogue
Transport Assessment and Construction Logistics Plan​: EAS 
Tree Survey and Report​​​​​: Patrick Stileman