Community Centre Design | Someru Community Centre | Sõmeru parish | Estonia | Salto

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..........more

Community Center Design | Mosaikken Community Centre | Kjellerup | Denmark | Arkitema Architects

The vision is that the entire development – the building and the surrounding spaces – will be woven into the existing, somewhat complex urban scene to create a new wholeness and identity in the area, while at the same time establishing itself as a public meeting-place. The building houses: library, cinema, meeting facilities, teaching facilities, school administration, local art exebition and more.

The aim is to create a building that is open and inviting, and which will allow itself to be coloured and transformed by the various activities taking place there during the day and evening. The building is called Mosaikken – the mosaic – because of its mix of functions which takes place in it.

The building is open towards the square that links it to the sports hall. From here, users are led into the building's common area, which has the character of a market square.

It is a bright room with a high ceiling and two large space-creating elements: "The Rotunda" and "The Bookshelf", both of which are visible from the outside, and consequently help to communicate the building's activities. The Bookshelf provides access to the library and separates it from the ‘market square’. Its location along one side of the market square means that the library makes natural use of parts of the square for its exhibitions, notice boards, etc. The school and the library are also linked by a smaller connecting building.........more

South Oshawa Community Center | Oshawa | Ontario | MJMArchitects

The South Oshawa Community Centre is a hybrid community recreation centre that forms a shared use facility for the City of Oshawa and the Durham District School Board. The project adds swimming pools, fitness and multi-purpose hall components to the existing G.L. Roberts Collegiate & Vocational School gymnasium and support facilities. The Centre was designed to have a contextual scale and fit with the local residential neighbourhood, and to take advantage of views to parkland and Lake Ontario to the south. The building complex is designed to be energy efficient, with particular attention paid to solar heat gain reduction and maxiumum natural lighting in all public areas.......more

Community Centre for Health Partick | Glasgow | Scotland | Gareth Hoskins Architects

In 2002 Gareth Hoskins Architects were commissioned to design a new exemplar community health centre in Partick, Glasgow. The aim was for a welcoming non-institutional building which would reflect the contemporary face of community health care. The glazed frontage reveals an open stair within a triple height void which forms the hub of the building and links the clinic facilities and administrative office space. The principle spaces of consulting rooms and large offices are predominantly contained within a timber box to the rear of the building, to provide privacy.

Ross Park Shelterhouse | Seattle | Heliotrope Architects

The program for the project consisted of a meeting space and public restrooms as well as exterior landscaping improvements. Additionally, the community was interested in improving safety, providing covered outdoor space and incorporating environmentally-friendly educational features into to the project. Our design solution splits the building into two forms – one with a “green” roof and one not. In order to make this duality visible to the public, downspouts for the two roofs are co-located along the sidewalk and allow passers-by to see for themselves how a green roof mediates run-off on rainy days. The green roof form extends beyond the interior to provide an outdoor ‘front porch’ for the community. This is the first green-roof project for the parks department and the third constructed by the City.........more

Northside Community Center | San Jose | California | David Baker + Partners

By taking a holistic approach to the shared site of the community center and the adjacent senior housing, it was possible to maximize the site to the benefit of both projects. The private residences have a thoughtful relationship to both the surrounding streets and the adjacent community center, which joins a corner public park and meditation garden in creating an open and welcoming gathering place for the neighborhood.........more

Community Centre Design | Fitzgibbon Community Centre | Richard Kirk Architect

The Urban Land Development Authority commissioned Richard Kirk Architect in April 2010 to design a community centre for the new Fitzgibbon neighbourhood.

The centre is a response to the common suburban landscape within which it is sited. The regenerated bushland fringe of the site has been used as an unregulated dumping ground for vehicles and other refuse, which has over time degraded the landscape. The Fitzgibbon Community Centre design responds to this treatment in built form, by redefining and redeeming this relationship to the landscape as a piece of artwork within the environment.

Community Center | Cuiaba,Brazil | About Blank

This is a pre-fabricated building, to which a skin is added with the function of creating a ventilated façade, thereby contributing to improve the thermal performance of the facilities.
The concern with the building’s sustainability becomes even more relevant in a building for a charity institution, giving them the ability to reduce their energy costs and allowing a greater share of the raised funds to be applied on the other various social activities they promote......more

Community Centre | TOKKO MyPlace | Luto | England | Astudio Architecture

The TOKKO MyPlace scheme is aimed primarily at bringing together 14-19 year olds in order to create a sense of community, stretch imaginations, extend ambitions and realise the potential of the youth community in Luton. The TOKKO Youth Steering Group have worked closely with us by attending benchmarking workshops, design workshops, site visits and other youth centre and building visits. The location of the TOKKO site is in the centre of Luton. The levels vary across the site in both directions and it has a limited footprint, both of these elements have influenced the design. It is intended that the new structure will be built within the footprint of the site, utilising the full area. This has driven the building to be arranged vertically, exploiting this to express different functions outlined in the brief. The design has addressed the idea of having open areas in the lower floors and more enclosed functions on the upper levels as described by the youth group as their ideal distribution within the different levels of the building. The TOKKO site is located within a conservation area of Luton. Meaning, the scale and architectural language of the building has been carefully considered in order to respect the character of this part of the town. The approach has been to “sculpt” the massing of the building to adapt its composition lines to those currently present in the immediate context as well as creating a dialogue in between the two very different scales the site faces: two stories plus sloping roof towards the north and six stories towards the south. The building massing has been conceived as two articulated boxes arranged to address both scales and create an interesting massing that could be identified as a distinctive building, yet considering its immediate context......more

Fitzgibbon Community Center | Richard Kirk Architect

The Urban Land Development Authority commissioned Richard Kirk Architect in April 2010 to design a community centre for the new Fitzgibbon neighbourhood. The centre is a response to the common suburban landscape within which it is sited. The regenerated bushland fringe of the site has been used as an unregulated dumping ground for vehicles and other refuse, which has over time degraded the landscape.
The Fitzgibbon Community Centre design responds to this treatment in built form, by redefining and redeeming this relationship to the landscape as a piece of artwork within the environment. The building addresses its street frontage without being sited on the street, with its facade line modified to incorporate the rare remaining trees on site.
This in turn helps with the building programme of a mixed use cultural centre incorporating allied health, offices, meeting spaces, retail and community halls. The ‘heart’ of the scheme is a large open covered space, which forms a gateway on the axis from the new commercial centre of Fitzgibbon to the bushland tracks and trails to the North. This gateway acts as a starting and finishing point for the trails, with essential amenities and a retail outlet. While formally abstract and demure the centre makes provocative use of materials, which highlight it as a future landmark in the community.
The building is fringed by sculptural blades of weathering steel, a material that responds to the corroded car bodies once found on site.
These blades form a rippled screen to the street which reveals glimpses through the building when approached by vehicle.
Behind this oxidised screen, the building is clad in stained plywood with ample operable glazing to allow natural ventilation, and large overhangs to provide natural lighting without overheating. This use of naturally weathering materials and passive climate controls allow the Fitzgibbon Community Centre to evolve and respond over time to its suburban landscape.....more

Community Center Aussersihl,Zurich | EM2N

More picture here

Project Name: Community Center Aussersihl
Location: Zurich
Client: City of Zurich, represented by: Buildings Department
Architects: EM2N : Mathias Mueller / Daniel Niggli, Zurich
Construction Management: Jaeger Baumanagement GmbH, Zürich
Structural Engineers: Tragwerk Bauingenieure GmbH, Affoltern a.A.
Timber construction Engineers: Pirmin Jung Ingenieure für Holzbau GmbH, Rain
HVACR: Amstein + Walthert, Haustechnik, Zürich

Competition: 1999, 1st prize
Start of planning phase: Sep 2002
Start of construction: Nov 2004
Completion: Sep 2004
Gross Floor Area: 866 m2
Building Footprint: 228 m2
Costs: EUR 1.8 Mio
Via

Sean O' Casey Community Center | East Wall, Dublin | Odonnell-Tuomey

Brief: A series of spaces as resource and representation for the community of the East Wall, including a theatre, day-care, creche, educational and recreational facilities.

Area: 2088m2
Design: March 2006 - January 2007
Construction: April 2007 - September 2008
Completed: September 2008
Text and Images from Odonnell-Tuomey

Community Centre,Merksplas,Netherlands | Dierendonck - Blancke

This project is situated in the center of Merksplas. The program includes the creation of a library, multipurpose room, cafeteria and a number of rooms for local organizations. The volume of construction starts at the street and develops along perceelsgrens. The program spread over two floors, the surface limited. The location provides a presence in the streets and open space for any housing in the future (an option suggested by the builder). On the ground floor there are three features: the central hall, the cafe and the multipurpose room. These areas are directly connected and together as a whole function. The central hall provides direct access to other premises and is in visual contact with the upper floor by means of two vides. Two staircases lead to the first floor of the library and multipurpose rooms. The length of the building is broken by a double bend in the south façade which three components of the scale of the project break. A division into various aspects under slight slope close the roof here and the different slopes of the cornice visible. This approach is the building on the existing, fragmented morphology of the area.
Texts and images from :Dierendonck - Blancke

Community Building-The Villa,Hoogvliet,Netherlands | FAT

The Villa is a community building which sits at the heart of the Heerlijkheid park designed by Fat in the town of Hoogvliet in the Netherlands. The building contains a multi-use hall, offices, and a café. It’s design is intended to create a 21st century civic architecture for a suburban new town. It is a decorated shed, using timber rain screen cladding to create an architecture of communication which evokes Hoogvliet’s industrial past, whilst the references to elements of nature in the entrance and in some of the “cut-out” features of the façade, recall the bucolic ideas on which the design of the New Town was originally based. Inside the shed like quality of the building is emphasized by the painting pink of the structure. From the inside, views to the park and surrounding landscape are framed by the delicate intricacies of the external envelope.
Images and texts from: FAT