The Greenhill Building, Harrow Arts Centre

by Chris Dyson Architects

Client Harrow Borough Council

Award RIBA London Award 2025

The award winner tells us: "The Greenhill Building is a dedicated teaching and events space on Harrow Arts Centre’s London campus, hosting a range of activities from Bhangra dance classes to photography workshops.

The project is an early example of a fully cross-laminated timber (CLT) arts centre, proposed by the design team as an affordable, low-waste, and low-carbon alternative to structural steel. Lightweight and fabricated off site, the system reduces the need for expensive foundations and meant that the entire main build was completed in under nine months.

The team worked creatively with a limited budget, and their inventive approach to site, form, structure, and materials has delivered a bright, flexible building of enduring value to the local community."

The jury says: "This simple structure draws inspiration in its form from the agricultural heritage of the former board school’s farm buildings. Simple sawtooth roofs combine with the use of low-cost industrial cladding and non-visual-grade structural timber to produce an appealing and suitably raw character appropriate for a multi-user arts building. The internal planning intelligently anticipates future adaptability and is highly flexible and subdivisible if required."

Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal

Structural engineer Webb Yates

Landscape architect Kinnear Landscape Architects

Signage and wayfinding Studio Emmi

Quantity surveyor/cost consultant PT Projects

Fire safety CWB

Gross internal area 460m²