HFR was appointed by Peel NRE Ltd to undertake the planning submission for ‘Plastics Village,’ located at Protos, a strategic energy and resource management hub at Ince Marshes. The application seeks full planning consent for five interconnected components within the redline boundary: Hydrogen Refuelling Station (HRS), Polymer Laminate Recycling Facility (PLRF), Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), Plastics Recycling Facility 1 (PRF1), Plastics Recycling Facility 2 (PRF2).

Together with the consented PET Recycling Facility and Plastics to Hydrogen Facility, these components form the wider Protos Plastic Park.

The design strategy employs contemporary principles to create high-quality, modern industrial architecture. The proposal balances the technical requirements of high-end recycling processes with the specific constraints of the site context.

The buildings are composed to appear as simple, coherent forms when viewed from a distance, while revealing a high-tech, detailed architectural language at close quarters. To achieve this, the massing is deliberately set back from the highway, allowing for strong landscape buffers. These buffers screen the bulk of the facilities, restricting offsite views to fragmented glimpses of key features and material changes.

On the approach along Grinsome Road, the landscape buffers gradually diminish near the roundabout, opening up the panorama. Here, glazed entrances, flat metal cassette facades, and sleek lines celebrate the arrival at a high-end environmental industries park.

To respect the existing context—specifically the consented Biomass and Energy from Waste (EfW) plants—the proposal utilizes muted colours and a subservient architectural language, ensuring it complements rather than competes with the uncompromising design of the EfW facility.