Sõmeru Community Centre, located just outside the North-Estonian town of Rakvere, combines parish administration, library and a club with a hall. The new centre has to enhance a sense of identity in the quite scattered, mostly Soviet-time settlement. The solution is a compact blend of various functions with enough common spaces and various possible usage ways. The interior and exterior are intermingled, creating a park-like structure – cosy gardens as concentrated pieces of nature offer a counterpart to sparse density of the surrounding environment. The community centre is single-storeyed, undulating roofline is a result of varying heights of the rooms. Its distinct character stems from using colourful straw-like wooden bars attached to the black-and-white concrete facade. The same aesthetics continues in the interior, only this time the slats are hanging freely from the ceiling, creating a lively accent above the black walls..........
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