Really Local Group | arts centre concept

Concept design for a new social venue in Ealing; green spaces, historic fabric, cultural neighbours & street-life all go into the mix.

Really Local Group

Really Local Group
Ealing W5

Competition win | Research | Identity | Concept design | Graphics/collage

Competition win for the conversion of a town centre nightclub into affordable mixed use social space: café, bar, daytime workspace, evening music events and 3 cinema screens.

The brief was for ideas rather than a design, and with little to go on and deep in Covid lock-down we started with a walk across the common and photo survey of green spaces, historic fabric, cultural neighbours and street scene to get the feel of life in Ealing. First sight from the tube station was a line of film trucks which was a big clue, add to this grand villas, Pitzhanger Manor, the soon-to-open Elizabeth Line and all kinds of industry and enterprise coexisting and the picture soon filled out.

We pitched a loose and graphic approach to a few questions that came to mind: how to stand out on a congested pavement with a very small shopfront and prominent, well-established competition all around; ways to encourage visitors downstairs into the cathedral-like concrete basement box; designing for super-flexibility, accessibility and collaboration in a venue with ambitions to be much more than a just a cinema, and lastly how to do this affordably and sustainably.

The walk turned into a plan for connecting with community and a providing a highly adaptable space for multiple use - a recommended method for starting all projects.

The Ealing Project opening summer 2022.

Visuals Studio 163