Case Study | 06 Feb 2020

Squash Food Hub, Liverpool

Manchester-based cooperative URBED (Urbanism Environment and Design) worked with Squash, a Toxteth-based community business working within communities to share skills and promote food health and well-being, to design and develop a food hub on derelict land on Windsor Street in Liverpool 8.

The 200m2 building for the food hub was designed with a super-insulated timber frame, triple-glazed windows, and Scottish larch cladding, and was intended to be as environmentally responsible as possible on a small budget.

21°’s PERFORMANCE triple glazed timber windows and doors were specified for the project.

The project

The idea of a community food hub had been evolving for a number of years, and Squash asked URBED to develop the building designs in 2014. Proposals were developed in collaboration with a community design team made up of local residents including growers, artists, cooks, environmentalists, bee-keepers and passionate vegetable fans. Planning approval was received in spring 2015, and construction work started on site that summer. After an eventful and somewhat stressful construction process, Squash moved in to the new building in early 2018, and it opened to the public in May 2018.

The project aimed to develop a vibrant community food hub, with four key activity areas to support food learning and culture:

A community shop selling sustainable, affordable produce
A community-run cafe producing seasonal, multicultural food
Community and professional training services including creative nutrition and urban agriculture.
A community-use kitchen including a ‘food lab’ for local food business start-up.

Triple glazed timber windows & doors

21°’s PERFORMANCE triple glazed timber windows & doors were specified for the project. The windows and doors included outward casement windows, single doors, double doors, a fully glazed 4 leaf bi-fold door and a part panelled bi-fold door, all finished in RAL 9001 white.

The client’s brief was for an environmentally sound building with low running costs. As we had opted for a super-insulated timber frame building, triple glazed windows fitted with the high performance criteria. 21°’s PERFORMANCE range also offered Secure by Design security options which was a key requirement for the project.. The fact that all the timber used in the PERFORMANCE range is FSC certified also matched our aim to use only FSC timber on the project. Lastly the clients were keen to work with locally-based companies so were pleased to work with the nearby Huddersfield-based 21°. I am already very familiar with 21°s windows and doors and know them to be good quality and robust. The project experienced a number challenges during construction, including a major fire on the building site, and we found 21° to be very flexible in working with us around delays on site and the need to store the windows and doors for an extended period of time. The clients are really happy with the windows and doors, including the big bi-fold doors, which really help bring the garden into the building.

Marianne Heaslip, Associate Principal at URBED

More information

The SQUASH Project won the ‘People’s Prize’ in the ASBP Awards 2020.

Project details

Completed

May 2018

Case study

February 2020

Squash Food Hub, Liverpool

Manchester-based cooperative URBED (Urbanism Environment and Design) worked with Squash, a Toxteth-based community business working within communities to share skills and promote food health and well-being, to design and develop a food hub on derelict land on Windsor Street in Liverpool 8.

The project

Triple glazed timber windows & doors

More information

Project details

Further reading

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