Art Park is a temporary creative campus in Harrow, with 14 affordable, demountable workspaces and six micro exhibition spaces across three courtyard-framing buildings.

Art Park is a temporary creative workspace and cultural campus in Harrow. The precinct provides 14 genuinely de-mountable, affordable workspace units of various sizes and 6 micro exhibition spaces distributed across 3 small buildings that frame a triangular courtyard.

The courtyard fosters social interaction and provides opportunities for workspace tenants and creative practitioners to showcase their work. 3 illuminated glasshouses and 3 micro gallery containers have been placed in strategic positions to suit 2- and 3-dimensional art and design exhibits. Art Park is an initiative by Harrow Council designed to build long term resilience and to reverse decline that had set in, in the town centre since the closure of large anchor retailers.

The project responds to a need for affordable enterprise and cultural space and helps to diversify the existing town centre with a focus on opportunities for young people living locally. It capitalises on a window in the development pipeline to deliver environmental, social and economic value where long-term plans are yet to materialise.

The design process is underpinned by a staged community engagement strategy which culminated in a weeklong program of events in June 25 as part of the London Festival of Architecture.

The project actively contributes to transforming an economically unviable and environmentally unsustainable town centre into a thriving place that responds to people’s needs. It does this by incubating impactful businesses and community organisations to take on town centre premises as outdated retail recedes. That way, Art Park ensures the continued viability and resilience of the town centre as its social and economic context changes.