Hackney Marshes, London

Hackney Marshes is best known as the London home of amateur Sunday League football. Designed by architects Stanton Williams, the new ‘Community Hub’ at the South Marsh, comprising new changing rooms, a cafe, and an education facility, which was completed in 2011 at a cost of £5 million by John Sisk & Sons. Materials have been chosen for robustness and for their ability to blend into the structure’s surroundings. Gabion walls provide a vandal-resistant envelope and function as a framework for climbing plants, creating a ‘green wall’. COR-TEN® weathered steel offering a rich texture is used for cladding which includes perforated panels, shutters, and louvres, all supplied by Spanwall. The nature of weathered steel changes in colour over time, it emphasises the combination of nature and artifice that permeates the scheme. The Hackney Marshes Centre is another multi-award-winning project Spanwall are proud to have supplied.