Life Under the Westway is a co-produced community garden beneath the Westway motorway in North Kensington, designed in collaboration with local community group Grow to Know. It celebrates local stories, increases biodiversity and provides much-needed community facilities.

At its centre is a new pavilion conceived as a ‘Green Bandstand’, a flexible space for the community to meet, play and plant. Its design is inspired by Adam Ritchie’s photographs of children creating informal playgrounds from scaffolding and discarded materials amid the demolition rubble generated during the construction of the Westway. Seating is formed from gabion cages filled with rubble and topped with scaffold-board seats. The floor is made from permeable resin-bound gravel produced from crushed construction waste, while the roof structure is assembled from reclaimed scaffold tubes and boards.

The pavilion’s form follows the double-helix language of the wider garden, with two lightweight roofs intertwining and spiralling towards the sky, in contrast to the heavy concrete structure above. Open and transparent, it simultaneously offers views out across the garden and into a peaceful central courtyard.

The pavilion integrates nature and planting throughout. The gabion cages contain a variety of plants, including ferns and grasses, creating habitats for insects and wildlife. Climbers are planted at the base of the columns and grow up the scaffolding structure towards the roof, which is planted with a rich mixture of low-maintenance native grasses and wildflowers.