The Oval Community Centre & All Saints’ Church

Stevenage

The Oval Community Centre and All Saints’ Church is being developed as a replacement for the existing facilities, as part of the broader regeneration of the Oval neighbourhood in Stevenage.

The strategic vision for this project is to create a new civic hub at the heart of the wider masterplan, which includes new homes, small independent retail spaces, a supermarket, and a new public realm featuring a market square.

In collaboration with the Community Association and Church leadership group, the detailed brief has been developed to offer greater flexibility of spaces, a better range of spaces to hire, incorporate the nearby Family Centre, and to create a more intuitive organisation of spaces to aid in the access, circulation, management, and security of the centre.

The design is a building of two halves: the church and the community centre, each with its own identity yet working together to establish a focal point with active, welcoming, and strong elevations on all four sides.

The community centre features a layered grid composition of columns and recessed bays, incorporating a colonnade at the ground floor and a covered roof terrace on the second floor overlooking the square. In contrast, the church is designed as a single volume with a projecting brickwork detail that adds depth and shadow to the façade. The interface between the two is marked by a glazed entrance façade, serving both elements and uniting the two.

The smaller of the two function halls sits above the church, set back from the main façade, forming a secondary roof terrace. The remaining roof areas are designed to host PV panels and include native underplanting, encouraging wildlife and improving rainwater attenuation. The project aims for the building to achieve a BREEAM rating of 'Excellent' and an EPC rating of 'A'.

To the north and west of the building, two new parks are proposed as part of the wider public realm works. Secure and accessed via the community centre, a new community garden will replace the existing neglected one, complementing the internal spaces and enabling some of the indoor activities to spill outside.

Internally, the building is arranged with the church to the north, featuring a predominantly double-height space. To the south, spanning three floors, the community centre includes a suite of facilities: at ground level, there are the reception, office, kitchen, and a group meeting room; the first-floor houses additional meeting rooms and the Family Centre; and the second floor contains two halls, storage, kitchens, associated toilets, and two roof terraces.

In line with the brief, the church and community centre can operate independently, and the community centre itself can function floor by floor without reliance on other floors being opened up, aiding in staffing levels and the overall management of the building.

Church
Church storage
Church lobby
Church office/Meeting room
Church kitchen
Entrance foyer
Reception
Meeting room
Lift
Stair
WC
Office
Kitchen
Plant
Bin Store
Lounge
Storage
Cleaner storage
Lobby
Flexi space
Multi purpose hall
Terrace

view south from Bradman Way toward the Market Square

Landscape. The landscape proposals by fabrik include the redesigned community garden that will remain in its current location. The new community garden is a secure and dedicated garden associated with the church and community centre. A large terrace and pergola structure will provide dappled shade and a space to spill out on to from the church and community centre. A shallow sunken lawn area will provide a place to inhabit depending on the different functions and activities taking place. To the perimeter of the garden and part of a circular route, a range of different planting provides different experiences – a ‘pocket orchard’ along the southern edge lines the footpath leading to a focal point tree and bench beneath, a sheltered garden with shrubs and overhanging trees line the eastern boundary, and along the northern edge raised planters provide more accessible planting for those less agile.