Project Overview
Each element of the masterplan has been carefully considered using the concept of the ‘healing landscape’ to create an invigorating hub for the community of Sparkbrook and actively improve health and wellbeing.
Both buildings are set back from the road with their entrances opening out onto hard landscaped plazas, naturally drawing the public towards them. The ‘hub’ design also allows the provision of private space at the back of each site and clearly defined public space at the front. The clean, angular lines of the church also connect it with the adjacent park by extending its external walls to line up to with its two tree-lined avenues.
On the church site, a community peace garden has been re-created. Secured by a lockable door and surrounded by rendered walls and frosted glass, the garden features sensory planting with year-round colour and a herb garden for the community to tend to. This not only provides a calming environment and an area of quiet reflection but a private space, particularly for Muslim women.
Establishing local pride and identity, the design team and arts co-ordinator incorporated elements from the design workshops into art installations across the site. Ideas from a brainstorming session have been represented in a water feature outside the centre, which includes words such as ‘welcome’, ‘dignity’, ‘openness’ and ‘unity’ – symbolising values the community embrace.
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Sparkbrook is a showcase development and one-stop hub for health and wellbeing services that will benefit future generations and create a legacy for itself as an example of how to unite the community through a single vision.
Naeem Qureshi / Sparkbrook Neighbourhood Forum
