About the project
Working in partnership with LDA Design, HS2 and Mace Dragados Joint Venture (MDJV), we supported a group of young people from the Regent’s Park Estate to design and build their own play and performance space in 2024. Reflect, named by the young designers, is a true product of the group’s amazing imagination. The multifunctional pavilion can be used as a performance and play space and uses mirrors to playfully integrate the landscape of the new garden on one of the HS2 meanwhile sites on Hampstead Road, London.
The project is a response to an initial community engagement programme, including an open iftar and family workshops on the Regent’s Park Estate, which identified a clear need for more recreational spaces dedicated to young people living in and around the Euston area. The Young Placemakers, a group brought together by local youth charity Fitzrovia Youth in Action, designed the structure over 12 weeks. While the main frame was assembled by contractors, the decorative panels that form the impressive top half of Reflect were built by the group at the Euston Skills Centre over the course of a week in August 2024.
The garden is now open to the public, offering precious green space to local residents and standing as a testament to the power of young people in shaping their neighbourhoods. At the end of its life, when the site is redeveloped as part of HS2’s masterplan, the pavilion will move to a permanent location in the neighbouring Regent’s Park Estate – home to many of the young people who played such an important part in its creation.
