North Acton Village Hut
North Acton, London
Pictures by Harry JohnsonThe North Acton Village Hut is a community space that forms the centrepiece of the new village in North Acton Square, and a prototype for a reclaimed timber and strawbale cassette system developed and delivered by ReCollective and Social Designs.
CLIENT
The Republic of Park Royal
Commissioned by The Republic of Park Royal, the project was delivered as part of London Design Festival 2025, acting as the focal point within the new village at North Acton Square.
STRAW, LIME, RECYCLED TIMBER, WASTE CLAY
Strawbale cassette
A key driver for the project was the development of an affordable timber and strawbale cassette, utilising ‘waste’ timber diverted by ReCollective from film industry waste streams and stored at their Park Royal depot, Minerva Works. Working with engineers Simple Works, a structural reclaimed timber cassette infilled with straw bales sourced from nearby fields was developed. Floor, wall, and roof structures were prefabricated off site as modular systems, using 90% reclaimed timber.
The cassette sought to minimise costs through a simple wall build-up with no internal or external sheathing boards. Externally, the straw is protected by a lime render with a ‘harled’ finish, and reclaimed timber cladding - already painted black from its previous life.
An internal clay plaster mix was developed using ‘waste’ clay excavated from an adjacent HS2 site. This plaster, together with the external tiles, was developed with Rescued Clay, a local partner also based at Minerva Works.
LIME RENDERING, CLAY PLASTERING
Natural Building Workshops
As part of LDF 2025, a series of natural building workshops were delivered by ReCollective and Social Constructs.
Over two weeks, more than 80 participants were introduced to natural building techniques.
TIMBER CLADDING
Women and gender minorities timber workshop
During the festival, Social Constructs delivered an introduction to carpentry that offered a space to women and non-binary folks to grow some confidence on construction tools and work on the timber cladding.
