Set among a grove of trees in a green suburb of South London, the Lavender Children’s Centre was conceived as a ‘pavilion in a park’, whose character reflects both its setting and the precise requirements of a new building type. Commissioned under the government’s Sure Start programme for low-income families, the centre was intended to bring childcare, training and support for parents together under one roof. Its design needed to balance security with a sense of welcome, and allow freedom and flexibility in use. Moreover, the centre had to be delivered quickly on a limited public budget, while offering a comfortable and stimulating environment to users of every age.

Building and place
The design was grounded in the idea of a small building that children can easily read and imagine themselves within. To avoid the impression of a large institution, the 990-square-metre centre was broken down into a sequence of cabin-like timber-clad blocks, linked together to form a long, single-storey structure. This fragmentation gives the building a friendly scale; seen between the trees, it hints at familiar structures ranging from garden sheds to play huts and temporary dens.

Although the site is surrounded by green space on all sides, it is also bound by a busy road on its eastern edge. This contrast is reflected in the simple, logical organisation of the centre’s mixed programme; the brief included playrooms for up to 90 preschool children, a community café and quiet rooms for training and advice. A broad circulation spine runs the length of the building, giving access to a string of large activity rooms on one side, and on the other to a shallow band of ancillary spaces – offices, kitchens, meeting rooms – that act as a buffer to traffic noise.

The plan and setting generate two very different elevations. Along the road, the building has a character that is robust and protective, without becoming defensive. Within facades of slatted Douglas fir, deep-set panels of bright coloured glass offer glimpses of interior life and lend the building a lively, playful identity. An adjacent outdoor play area was formed from excavated soil, shaped into low mounds that allow the building to settle into the landscape.

On the opposite side, the architecture opens up. Here the roof height rises, and the main activity rooms have generous glazed walls overlooking a secure playground. Slender steel and timber canopies extend outward to provide shade and shelter. These elements create small patios where children can move easily between interior spaces and the outdoors, with filtered light and dappled shadows reinforcing the sense of being within a park.

Modern Methods of Construction
Variety in the building’s appearance belies a disciplined, economical approach to construction, as the simple forms, repetition and regular structural grid allowed its assembly from a limited number of components and a high degree of off-site prefabrication. Inspiration was taken from the experimental Case Study Houses built in California in the post-war period, and from the minimal Riverview High School completed by Paul Rudolph at Sarasota, Florida, in 1958; fittingly, JMP later won an international design competition to restore that exemplar of American modernism.

A prefabricated ‘kit of parts’ was developed with the structural engineer, Arup. Steel frames were bolted together to form a series of ‘tables’, and infilled with timber studs and rafters. The clarity of this system is deliberately legible in the architecture, quietly celebrating its reliance on off-site manufacture while also establishing a calm, ordered backdrop for everyday use.

Modest means and rigorous thinking can produce architecture that is engaging, generous and flexible. Since the conclusion of the Sure Start programme, the Lavender Children’s Centre has continued to provide a calm, welcoming environment for young people – most recently as a school for pupils with significant medical needs. Clarity of purpose and care for the experience of children have delivered lasting civic value.