Architect Scott Brownrigg has produced a masterplan to redevelop a 143-acre site and former clay mineral quarry to provide more than 1.75 million sq ft of studio space together with on-site accommodation and amenities.
Home of Production (HOP) Studios is a joint venture of Quartermaster Entertainment and Verb, a development company owned by Cathexis, which also owns construction contractor ISG. Cathexis is the property vehicle of 35-year-old Texan oil billionaire William Harrison.
The former quarry, known as Quest Pit, opened in 1983 and was the last active brick pit in Bedfordshire when it closed in 2008, leaving a series of redundant brownfield sites with access tracks and flooded extraction bowls, and parts of the site up to 12 metres below natural ground level.
The masterplan addresses this by placing four separate 430,500 sq ft production units on a 70-acre platform, four metres above the water level. These units centre around a restaurant and activity zone, linked to two lakes that have formed over time due to the natural flooding of extraction pits. Workshops envelop studio space, while an outer loop road provides access to supporting facilities.
The land has already been purchased and the money is said to be all in placed – so construction could start as soon as planning permission is granted, if it is granted.
Bruce Calton is head of masterplanning at Scott Brownrigg. He said: “This complex brief, across an intriguing site, combines landscape, water and a highly-functional film and television campus masterplan. It has been a rewarding experience creating such a unique setting for the Home of Production (HOP) within the UK.”
Swedish consulting engineer Sweco and landscaping architect Macfarlane Associates worked with Scott Brownrigg on the plans.
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