At Hidden River Festival 2025 we unveiled the Woodberry Down Pavilion. Designed and built by 11 young residents with the support of London School of Architecture’s Roy Coupland and Yang Yang Chen, the pavilion was unveiled by Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley, who presented awards to all the young residents involved.
The structure remained in situ for three weeks, serving as a community hub to host youth-led cultural events and a series of creative workshops for local children and young people.
Fast forward a year and we are thrilled to learn the project has been nominated for a New London Architecture (NLA) award in the Meanwhile Activation category.
The winners of the NLA Awards 2026 will be announced at an awards lunch on Thursday 19 November at the Guildhall.
More about the project
The pavilion was designed by young local people, aged between 13 and 19, through a series of 10 hands on creative workshops led by Roy and Yang Yang’s Hackney-based architect practice, RC/YYC Limited and other build professionals.
Over the period of four months, the group developed their ideas, tested design concepts and worked directly with a range of built-environment professionals, finally seeing all their hard work pay off in the finished wooden structure.
The Woodberry Down Pavilion project supported local young people to develop foundational skills in design and making. By the end of the project, 83% of participants felt they had gained core design skills and greater confidence in engaging with changes in their neighbourhood.
The project also established the first step on a ladder of opportunity, with 5 out of the initial 12 participants going on to join the London School of Architecture’s Part 0 programme, which aims to make architectural education more affordable and accessible.
Support and positive feedback from the local community grew throughout the project and this year we’re funding the Woodberry Design Studio. This encouraged greater interest in longer-term engagement with young people as part of the next phases of the Woodberry Down regeneration.
Learn more about the project and some of the young people involved in the video below.
“The thing I enjoyed the most about this project was drawing sketches of Woodberry Down and designing the pavilion with friends. I’m really proud that we were able to make something out of nothing. I would like to take part in more of these projects because we can meet new people. Opportunities like this are really good for everyone.” - Lina
Lina is a current resident of Woodberry Down. Since the end of the project, RC/YYC was able to secure a work experience placement at HUT architecture for Lina during the October half-term 2025.
What’s next?
Earlier this year eight new young residents used the previous designs to reimagine the pavilion. The second reincarnation, which features an additional canopy, will be re-erected for this year's Hidden River Festival, which takes place on Saturday 12 September. It will again be used for a cultural programme of events running into the autumn at Woodberry Down estate.
Come along to the festival to learn more.
Building on the success of this project, we are currently recruiting for a new cohort of young people to join the Woodberry Design studio in taking on more public space design projects. This partnership project is funded by NHG, Hackney Council and Berkeley Homes, who are the regeneration partners collaborating on the Woodberry Down Regeneration.
If you are interested, aged between 13 and 19 and live in Hackney, find out more and how to register your interest here.
