When Professor William Alsop was commissioned to build an innovative new children's centre in Harlesden, north London, he created a nursery unlike any other in Britain.
'I wanted Fawood Children's Centre to be a landmark building,' Alsop says.
'Many nurseries look like pumped-up bungalows, but I wanted to design a building that would fire children's imaginations.'
Fawood Children's Centre lies in the heart of Harlesden's Stonebridge estate, a run-down, disadvantaged area in the London Borough of Brent. More than 15 per cent of Stonebridge households are headed by a lone parent and 15 per cent of residents are unemployed. Of the 1,775 homes on the Stonebridge Estate, 90 per cent are medium- or high-rise flats, meaning that most local children lack safe outside areas to play in. It was the need to dramatically improve children's opportunities for outdoor play that formed the basis of the design brief for Fawood.
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