Old Catton Pavilion, Norfolk

Redhead Architects are delighted to breathe new life into this popular community building.

Unusually for a council facility,  Old Catton Parish Council are located within the grounds of a recreation ground.  Whilst the building is called The Pavilion, this is very much in name only.  We saw as an ideal opportunity to make the existing building more recognisable as a true ‘pavilion’, a familiar typology for a park setting, designed to support the functions of the park and act as a back drop to the varies activities which take place there.  We also wanted to retain as much of the existing building that we could and upgrade the thermal performance so this new facility would have low running costs and meet NetZero targets.

The new entrance to the Pavilion features a metal sign, that ‘cuts’ into the opening, creating a visual signpost to the main entrance to welcome visitors.  Internally, the arrangement of the proposed Pavilion has been carefully considered, with a clear visual relationship between the interior and exterior spaces.  A central hall minimises circulation and provides access to offices, meeting room, toilets and the community room, which is now twice the original size and is now served by a kitchen, which can double-up as a cafe serving visitors to the park.  The community room will have built in storage and can also be divided into two spaces with sliding doors.