The Sunnyside Nursery sits adjacent to The Apple House and features a green house for propagating plants from the plant library and a ‘mess room’ for trainee teaching and welfare.

The Sunnyside Rural Trust operate the site and provide support and horticultural training and employment to people with learning disabilities. They run a remarkable social enterprise in which plants are propagated from the plant library and eventually sold to help fund the Sunnyside Project.

The site’s location within Metropolitan Green Belt – and St Albans City and District – meant it was particularly constrained from a planning perspective. Collaboration with the local community was critical to providing evidence of its need and helped demonstrate the ‘very special circumstances’ required to overturn policy to gain planning permission.

The ‘mess room’ had to be built as a lightweight structure and on metal screw piles. The building is made almost entirely from timber, including its outdoor live edge furniture. The project was designed by Ben Stuart-Smith as part of the community interest company Okra, which he co-founded and specialises in architecture for community and public benefit.