The Barn, Waterloo City Farm

Completed in October 2017, the Barn forms the heart of Waterloo City Farm. Established in 2014, it is London’s most central urban farm, located on a formerly overgrown and neglected plot of land to the south of Westminster Bridge owned by Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital. Since this time the site has been transformed into a collective home for a trio of organisations with a shared focus on education: architects Feilden Fowles and the charities Jamie’s Farm and Oasis Waterloo.

Feilden Fowles have master-planned the site, which includes animal pens, an outdoor kitchen, walled garden and their own studio building. Forming the last piece of the masterplan and following a brief developed by the two charities, the Barn creates a large covered area and smaller insulated classroom which together host local school classes, community groups and events. The barn is also a rentable space generating income to sustain the charities’ activities. As with all buildings on the Farm, it is demountable, manufactured as a kit of parts and erected using only mechanical fixings.

The structure has been designed as economically as possible while retaining a civic and uplifting presence and creating an inspiring space in which to learn. The timber-clad eastern gable of the Barn forms the main entrance to the Farm. From here the rough sawn Douglas fir frame is set out in 4.8m bays leading to sliding agricultural doors at the building’s western end. These open up to the central path which runs the length of the site - the spine of the masterplan. It’s translucent cladding allows the barn to glow at night, adding life to an otherwise quiet street.

The cladding, lighting and internal details of the barn are influenced by the triangular geometries of the structure as well as obvious references agricultural forms and materials.