Innovation Park Medway Car Park Chatham, Kent 2022–

Innovation Park Medway (IPM) is an inspirational new home for businesses working in technology, precision engineering and manufacturing, located on a former runway of Rochester Airport. The IPM Car Park accommodates 240 parking spaces over four floors, with 20% of spaces for electric vehicles. It consolidates car parking to maximise the public realm and becomes an integral link in the campus, whether arriving by car, bicycle or on foot.

This is a civic building designed with the well-being of its users and the wider community in mind. It is welcoming, well lit, safe and accessible to all.

The layout emerged from a social ideal to create a safe environment. Perimeter walkways provide safe segregation between cars and pedestrians as well as allowing users to benefit from good natural daylight and spectacular views over both the Kent Downs and the Runway Park.

Image 1

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    The envelope — or its absence ­— is designed to create a very simple, fully open structure: a composition of vertical and horizontal lines, landing on a landscape
  • 9_2202_Laker-road_IG_HitandMiss_crop
    Perimeter circulation aids natural surveillance and animates the facade, while depth of space creates shadows to reduce visibility of cars
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    Ground floor plan
  • 9_2202_250-Building-01
    Typical floor plan
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    The plan concentrates car parking to maximise the public environment and becomes an integral link in the campus, wether arriving by car, bicycle or foot
  • 9_2202_A-x-M-xx-Diagram-Massing-IG
    Axonometric from north-west
  • 9_2202_WelfareFacilities_MT
    Rain gardens run along the side of a parking lot open to the public
  • 9_2202_IPM-Car-Park_SB9_03_clean
    The main language of the car park is a composition of vertical and horizontal lines.
  • 9_2202_Renderings_Walkway
    Circulating around the perimeter ensures pedestrians are kept away from vehicle movement. fumes and engine noise
  • 9_2202_A-x-S-AA-Building
    Section
  • 9_2202_A-x-E-SW-Building
    A series of stacked columns and flat slabs ensure physical and visual porosity to create a sense of openness and lightness
  • 9_2202_IPM-Car-Park_Office-Housing_Axonometric
    The scheme is adaptable from a car park to an office, with car ramps removed to create a garden & lightwell and facade added to external deck edge
  • 9_2202_IPM-Car-Park_Office-Housing_Diagram
    Diagram showing potential for future adaption into office (left) or residential (right) use

Technical

  • Appointment: 2022
  • Area: 8,045m2
  • Client: Medway Council
  • Landscape Architect: Landscape Projects
  • Structural Engineer: Price & Myers
  • Civil Engineer: Price & Myers
  • Transport Consultant: Price & Myers
  • M&E Engineer: SWP
  • Quantity Surveryor: Woodley Coles
  • Principal Designer: Potter Raper
  • Fire Consultant: Priority Risk
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