JA Projects and Freehaus bring a colourful youth hub to a north London high street

Wallpaper* writer Shizori Kanazawa writes how London architecture and design practices Freehaus and JA Projects took an empty retail unit on the high street of Wood Green and thought to transform it into a youth hub. This was the challenge Haringey Council posed – what could a space that welcomes local young people look like in an area dominated by retail? Completed in the heat of the summer with palpable input from Wood Green’s young voices, Rising Green serves as an example of how co-design can help carve a tailormade space where the local youth can relax, socialise, and learn.

Striking a balance between providing unobstructed views to the hub’s offerings and ensuring a sense of safety and security for its occupants was vital in the design process. Consultations with the local youth led to a brand identity that is tailormade toward Gen Z – an aesthetic intersection between the pop culture influences of the likes of sneaker culture, video game Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and indie rock band Glass Animal’s 1980s-influenced ‘Heat Waves’ music video. 

Both inviting and sheltering, the frontage boasts the youth hub’s logo in a softly backlit tangerine and violet, the latter colour clouding the bottom half of the glass shopfront as a gradation. People stop to examine the easels on display holding architectural illustrations of the space, placeholders for posters promoting future events and exhibitions. 

‘For both of our practices and Haringey Council, this project demonstrates the power of retrofit and how such approaches can contribute to the Mayor’s High Streets and Town Centres Adaptive Strategies,’ says Hagos. ‘Together, we have delivered a youth hub of the future, for the future; offering a dynamic and nurturing space for the young people of Haringey to inhabit and grow.'

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Read the full article in Wallpaper*

Image credits Ben Blossom Photography