TRA Hall

When it was built in 1968, the East Dulwich Grove Estate only had one shared, community space for the residents; a small Laundry Room with a mono-pitch roof built on the eastern corner of the estate. The room was decommissioned in the 1980s and subsequently became semi-derelict and a dumping ground for the estate’s cast-offs.

In 2011, the hall was refurbished thanks to a re-formed Tenants and Residents Association, support from local councillors and with grants from the Dulwich Community Council and Southwark’s Cleaner Greener Safer Fund. The project included the refurbishment of the community room and the creation of a useable outside space.

Our refurbishment of the space sought to provide a new sense of open-ness within the constraints of the existing building’s armature. We achieved this by providing two super-sized doors on parliament hinges that opened through 180 degrees and graded the external ground levels to provide flush access to the garden. The community planted a number of new trees and plants that helped activate the outside spaces.

Added to this we inserted a new timber bench to control the use of the outside space, a simple kitchen formed from rubber board and new internal cladding demarking where we have made minor modifications to the plan form of the original building. Collectively, the modifications create a remodelled community space in keeping with the material traditions of the Dutch-influenced design of the estate.