RED Construction has been appointed by Argent Related and Barnet Council to deliver Brent Cross Town’s visitor pavilion as part of the £5bn town centre development.

RED Construction commenced work in late December on an 8,000 sq ft, three-storey, temporary visitor centre on Claremont Way in Brent Cross to showcase the town’s masterplan. Designed by Moxon Architects, the building aims to capture and communicate the ambitious scale of Brent Cross Town, which will, say its developers, become a new park town for London and establish a “new standard for large-scale urban regeneration”.

Brent Cross Town will deliver 6,700 new homes for sale and for rent, alongside restaurants, sports and leisure facilities, and will be a major new office destination.

Argent Related has shown the designs for the first three office buildings at Brent Cross Town.

The developer says the designs set “a new standard for workspace in London”, and aim to bring together businesses who will benefit from their co-location as part of the £5bn, 180-acre new neighbourhood.

Argent say the design of London’s next major office destination responds to the new ways of working and “is embedded in an ethos of quality of life for everyone working, living and visiting Brent Cross Town”.

The offices will be located next to 50 acres of parks and playing fields along with 6,700 new homes, restaurants, leisure, shops, sport facilities, schools and student accommodation.

Argent plan that at Brent Cross Town, occupiers and their customers and employees will be able to enjoy workspace with four key benefits – a “value network”, connections to knowledge clusters, a productive workforce, and zero carbon office space.

The value network will come, say Argent, from bringing together innovative companies, academic organisations, start-ups and scale-ups to create a new, market-leading business ecosystem that on completion will total some 3m sq ft of space for c. 25,000 workers. They say the ecosystem will bring together a range of sectors who share a desire to be part of a network greater than their own and hold common values of championing quality of life and sustainability.

Served by the new Brent Cross West station that connects to King’s Cross St Pancras in 12-minutes, and the Northern line via Brent Cross underground station, Brent Cross Town is well connected to the life-science, tech and creative businesses that form the King’s Cross – Euston ‘Knowledge Quarter’ and Tech City at Old Street, and to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc that is home to market leading organisations in engineering, bio-med, pharmaceuticals and technology.

Argent say Brent Cross Town will facilitate businesses in putting their employees’ wellbeing first, a vital part of a strategy to attract and retain the best talent, through its ‘Project Play’ initiative which includes providing access to 50 acres of green landscaped parks and playing fields, as well as the creation of new sport and leisure facilities. They have made a pledge to deliver a new North London town where all can flourish including businesses and employees. Together with the University of Manchester and Buro Happold, Argent Related has developed a pioneering study to measure individual and social wellbeing. This ‘Flourishing Index’ will give organisations based at Brent Cross Town valuable insight into the wellbeing and productivity of their employees.

Brent Cross Town has pledged to deliver a net zero carbon town by 2030, creating healthy working environments and supporting the sustainability agendas of its occupiers. It has partnered with Vattenfall, a leading European energy services company, to provide a reliable and affordable zero carbon heating network, with a view to removing all CO2-emitting sources. Brent Cross Town will also reduce embodied carbon by using cutting edge timber construction technologies in its office buildings.

The first three buildings are positioned around a new main square and adjacent to the entrance of the new Brent Cross West station that will be completed in 2022.

Number 2 Brent Cross Town aims to be a factory for new ideas and innovation. Its design by Hawkins\Brown architects has 103,000 sq ft of flexible floorplates, allowing start-up and scale-up businesses to become part of a collaborative community of creators. The seven-metre-high ground floor space is accessible to the public, encouraging residents and visitors to engage with the work inside through events and exhibitions. This building has a timber structure and will use zero carbon heating and cooling systems.

Number 3 Brent Cross Town is designed by ShedKM architects and provides 221,000 sq ft of office space, with an expansive double height reception offering easy access from the station entrance. Design features include a timber floor structure, flexible open floorplates leading onto balconies and a striking warehouse-style roof pavilion with wonderful terraces and far-reaching views of the parks and Hampstead Heath beyond.

Number 4 is Brent Cross Town’s beacon timber-framed building designed by Studio Egret West architects, providing 250,000 sq ft of flexible and well-lit floorplates, with a top-floor ‘lantern’ feature and a generous wrap-around rooftop balcony with panoramic views over the city. If required, numbers 3 and 4 can be connected to provide c. 500,000 sq ft of space, with expansive c. 45,000 sq ft floorplates. Their position at the gateway to Brent Cross Town suits major organisations with an outward-looking focus who value easy links to both central London and the rest of the UK.

Nick Searl, Partner of Argent Related and Joint-Lead of Brent Cross Town, says, “We believe the future of great work lies in collaboration, and that our cities need to provide high-quality space for employees and businesses to come together. Brent Cross Town will be created to enable a better work-life balance, to encourage active and outdoor lifestyles, while providing places for innovation, mentoring and meeting of minds that cannot be achieved working from home. We remain confident in the requirement for physical office space that can flex and evolve with the requirements of its occupiers.”

Ken Wong, COO and Director of International Development, Related, said, “As the nature of work changes, Grade-A offices in connected communities will become prime and the space we are delivering at Brent Cross Town will create a new ecosystem for business. Brent Cross Town offers a competitive advantage to organisations who understand that employee quality of life is vitally important to productivity and to the overall health of their business.”

Councillor Daniel Thomas, Leader of Barnet Council, said: “Brent Cross Town is an exciting development for Barnet. Its connectivity to the rest of the UK will help attract world-class businesses and talent to the borough, while boosting skills and employment locally. Our new 180-acre park town has been designed so businesses are supported by open spaces, community facilities, retail and new homes; responding to changing behaviours towards living and working.”