Community garden to get sugarcrete® makeover

A new community garden being planned for North Woolwich will make extensive use of a revolutionary new material, Sugarcrete®, designed in the University of East London (UEL).

Students from UEL’s Architecture Department have already begun working on the project, with students from a local school, Newham Sixth Form College. A design workshop saw the two groups come together recently to plan seating, planters and bird houses for the new community garden.

Those structures will be built with Sugarcrete®, an alternative to bricks and concrete that uses sugarcane by-products. Developed by UEL’s Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), with the support of Tate & Lyle Sugars, the material uses sugarcane fibres left over after sugar production to produce bricks that have a carbon footprint five times smaller than traditional bricks.

During the workshop, the sixth form students learned about design, construction, sustainability, the circular economy and biodiversity, with their research helping them devise concept designs for the site. Tanwir, a 16-year-old student from the Newham school, said he’d gained a lot from his work on the project. He said, 

This week I learnt how to design and build a bench and planter. I enjoyed learning new skills and would consider a career in construction in future.

The new garden is being built on unused land near Crossrail tracks in North Woolwich, with the Over the Tracks initiative developed in partnership with Newham Council. The space will be used by the local community centre, the Royal Docks Learning and Activity Centre, and neighbourhood residents to hold community events, and to grow food for the local food bank.

Alan Chandler, Co-Director of the SRI, and the project manager on the garden scheme, said the project had brought people together, “The opportunity to support this new multi-partner initiative using the presence of Tate & Lyle to positively contribute to the physicality of the place using Sugarcrete® was a pleasure to be a part of. The students really engaged with our community co-designers and have built an amazing modular Sugarcrete® piece for the site.”

Megan Charnley, Senior Regeneration Manager at Newham Council, explained the project was not just about creating space for community activities but also about learning how to use materials sustainably. She said, “With a focus on the circular economy, it’s been fantastic to be able to work closely with UEL’s Sustainability Research Institute to devise this hyperlocal project.”

Armor Gutierrez, senior lecturer at UEL’s School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, noted that the project gave his students the opportunity to develop skills and make a positive impact. He said, 

The students developed their designs with Newham Council and the local community of Silvertown, and the output will leave a unique legacy in the area.

Students from UEL’s Department of Architecture have already finalised designs for a seating structure, with work underway on mixing Sugarcrete® to create the mould for the structure. Sinan Aldulaymi, one of the UEL students involved said, “The school students had very interesting ideas and it was fascinating to see how differently, and how similarly we think. The Over The Tracks project has put our designing, crafting, and casting skills to the test. At the end of the project, we will create a piece for the community with our own hands and that means a lot to all of us.”

The building phase on the project will last until Spring 2024 and the space will be open to the public from Summer 2024. It is supported by the Greater London Authority, Crossrail, government levelling up funding, and the University of East London itself.