April 15 2025
The Paper Garden, the learning and growing space set up by our partners Global Generation with support from British Land, has won a Golden Pineapple at the Developer and Festival of Place Pineapple Awards.
The ‘Pineapple for Community Space’ award recognises the impactful contribution to public life of the Paper Garden, located on the old Printworks site. Judges said: “‘With 3,000 people involved in making it, this is a phenomenal effort in a place without a huge existing community. In an environment of regulation and responsibility, this project has taken the opportunity to experiment. It shows how community buildings can do that with originality and creativity. The project’s deep-rooted qualities are unmistakable, and it is at the top of the league in terms of circularity and material re-use.”
The thousands of volunteers who created Paper Garden transformed an industrial storage shed formerly used by the Daily Mail into an educational building and garden. The cordwood walls of the classroom were built by local people with Yes Make, a design and build collective who teach communities how to construct spaces for themselves using locally reclaimed suppllies. 60% of the materials used in the project were reused, with many of them reclaimed from the original site. Architecture Today called the Paper Garden “one of the UK’s most successful circular building projects to date”1, recognising the commitment to circular economy principles and environmental sustainabilty that drives the project.
Emma Trueman, Head of Projects and Outreach in Canada Water, Global Generation, said: “In times when young people face environmental and social crises, it’s vital that spaces are available for community organisations. Global Generation is proud of our partnership with Canada Water, engaging young people and generating the needed change to build a brighter future.”
