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Abstract
Architecture in the community acts as a bridge between the local population and their everyday activities, routes through the community, creative and learning spaces, cultural and social activities. Buildings for the community will have many roles to play, as functional and appealing architectural designs; fitting into the site and surroundings, inevitably becoming landmarks and social connectors. They may help transform the way people interact and use shared space, building better communities, offering support for local people, addressing news and events, heritage and history; a familiar place for all; a beacon, the community gateway.
How much say do the community have in the shaping of space? How does a new, shared space influence the group, the community as one? How does an injection of new space, construction, complex urban planning, activity and event affect the individual community lives, intimately, comfortably and educationally? How do we create good, sustainable and welcoming community gateways?
The following buildings were covered in the article:
Read the article:
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Links:
Community Gateway
Studies of Community Gateways
Designing Spaces for the Community
Shared space – Gateway to the
Community
Author: Heidi Saarinen
Abstract:
Architecture in the community acts
as a bridge between the local population and their everyday activities, routes
through the community, creative and learning spaces, cultural and social
activities. Buildings for the community will have many roles to play, as
functional and appealing architectural designs; fitting into the site and
surroundings, inevitably becoming landmarks and social connectors. They may
help transform the way people interact and use shared space, building better
communities, offering support for local people, addressing news and events, heritage
and history; a familiar place for all; a beacon, the community gateway.
How much say do the community have
in the shaping of space? How does a new, shared
space influence the group, the
community as one? How does an
injection of new space, construction, complex urban planning, activity and
event affect the individual community
lives, intimately, comfortably and educationally? How do we create good,
sustainable and welcoming community
gateways?
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Through technological innovation, original
thinking, sustainability, and healthy risk taking, architecture can help create
strong community identities for site and place. The architecture that
represents communities must be absolutely purposeful to the local people, the community. The community must feel they
understand and relate to the design and any community project will benefit from
local collaborations in the design process. The considerations of site,
conditions, geographic and local topographic characteristics will play an
important part in the place making1,
adding the exact ingredients for that
place, that community.
Time and evolution of the way space
is used, the changing urban or agricultural landscape and overall site strategy
must be given an element of flexibility to change, to grow and to adjust and
allow for settlement. A community may need time to develop their own ways of thinking
about space, using space and carrying out activities for the everyday occupancy
of shared space. Allowing a mixed range
of services, activities and anticipation for the possibilities of the future,
will help create a more universal space for a spectrum of activities, for a
range of user-groups.
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Weeksville Heritage Centre’s sleek horizontal timber clad façade
sweeps its statement across the site in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn,
New York. Architectural details and materials immediately echo the heritage of
the site, contemporary urban vibes and close-knit historical community
chronicles. Connections to African-American beats and earthly rhythms are
delightfully intertwined with the architecture in the urban setting of the area.
The view from Buffalo Avenue,
looking into the courtyard; the deep inset slit in the timber façade, allows
for peeps into the core of the building; creating shadows and reflections,
adding shelter and movement. A lingering glass fronted corridor lets in natural
light and transparency. Dressed in clear, skilfully themed natural materials
and forms of long sweeping spaces, the architecture offers hierarchy to the occupier
and activity, the community.
The building has incorporated innovative
environmental technologies, such as geothermal temperature control systems,
reducing the use of fossil fuels. Materials are selected with care, using light
and space and considering the effects of day and night, adding ambience.
The Weeksville Heritage Centre
serves the immediate population and welcomes visitors from neighbouring hoods
and beyond. Exhibitions for local and wider audiences are curated and local
education programmes are in place; lectures, talks and events, a library and
resource space all make this building come alive with diverse activity,
knowledge and movement.
The new building acts as a
gateway to the original 19th Century African-American Freedman’s Settlement
site, including four original houses that were discovered in the 1960’s. An established
community campaign has allowed the new gateway building to become reality in 2013.
Requirements of the brief were
met by the architects through form, materiality and the smart references to the
site’s heritage; fluidity, continuous movement and pathways taking the
inhabitant on an architectural and memorial journey through time and place. The
gardens are exceptionally fitting, with poetic design moves inviting memory and
mediation. Ecology and wildlife, creations of farmland and simple architectural
form and preservation of light and sky where ever possible is particularly
striking. The design has integrated strategic viewpoints and large openings,
maintaining the flow of light, not to overshadow the existing settlement.
Interiors are light, bright and a series of positive environments.
The new building fits together with
the existing architecture of the site, and the historical character of the
surrounding area, acknowledging physical and conceptual connections between the
old and the new.
The historical site at Saint Elizabeth’s East Pavilion, in the
District of Columbia, now named the G8Way DC Pavilion, is located in the centre
of a 180-acre site, undergoing a substantial regeneration programme, covering the
entire site, with a range of on-going planning proposals, part of the city’s
master plan.
Whilst the surrounding redevelopments
are taking place, the concrete and timber pavilion structure acts as a
welcoming sign post and an interim venue for a wide range of activities, strengthening
the community and holding the site and local inhabitants together through the
developments by hosting a lively schedule of activities, events and education
programmes.
Historically, the site housed a
military medical centre during the Civil War; dealing primarily with mental
health, and is today run by the District of Columbia, offering a vibrant vision
for its local people. The pavilion acts as a catalyst for change and celebrates
a diverse future for the inhabitants of the area, an eclectic and forward
thinking local community. The idea is to develop the whole site into a sustainable,
socio-economic, mixed-use melting pot, and to enhance and integrate the new architecture,
local population and landscape closely with the existing infrastructure – creating
a sustained community gateway.
The welcoming, ground level open space
connects straight into the timber clad interior zones with elongated bench
seating for sharing en masse. Natural ventilation through the open space creates
a fluid transition between the inside and outside. Lightweight precast concrete
roof panels and an elevated green roof slicing through the horizontal skyline, make
up the top level of the building; becoming the perfect viewing platform for pausing
and admiring the immediate locale2.
Concerts and performance events are
taking place here and use of space for various community events and educational
activities have been carefully considered in the overall design programme. Regular
food and craft markets, selling home made produce and artefacts, informal
dining areas and creative events generate new audiences, helping the community network
by adding a new level of diversity, crucial for the future of the site and surrounding
developments. Retail units are let out to generate income and create local
opportunities and further diversify the experiences of the local people. Food
trucks have easy access to modular booths for loading and unloading market
produce.
Sustainable design is fundamental
to the project. Rainwater harvesting with an on-site cistern is in place, landscaping
and plant species have been designed and selected with care, using drought resistant
varieties. The green roof attracts wildlife and helps reduce the heat island
effect, minimising running costs. Natural ventilation is key in the design. Bicycle
stands encourage people to cycle as a healthy form of transport in the
community. The pavilion is the welcoming entrance to this vast site, and an
integral part of the first phase of the site’s overall major redevelopment
plans.
Set in central Porto, on a site that
was once the main entrance to the city, Praca de Lisboa reinvents the
threshold, from its triangular plan, between the community and the urban fabric.
Its textured concrete façade juxtapose material and form between old and new,
inside and out, with sculpturally architectural suggestions. The programme arrangement
encouragingly transformed a neglected public town square, consisting of three
multi purpose levels of use, giving the site a new tenacity into an enjoyable
and practical community thoroughfare and urban park. The building’s striking dual
composition plan; divided into two verticals, giving way to a pedestrian promenade
in the middle, allowing illumination, ventilation, shelter and shade. Light and
shadow play with the ambience through the changing daylight and seasons, forming
different qualities of interior landscapes and social experiences, enhancing
the existing colour scheme.
The project has replaced what was
previously a dilapidated and perilous site by introducing secure pedestrian
walkways for urban and shared activities. New circulation and connection points
have been created for easy movement through the site and to the city landscape
beyond, equally representing the in-between; interior and exterior. Due to its
central location, Parca de Lisboa attracts walkers, shoppers, university
students and those passing through on route to nearby destinations.
Prefabricated concrete components and staggered planes hint
at place and geographical and architectural control. White metal structures on the façade form irregular
grid-like patterns, then gradually extend the journey towards a section of contemporary
semi under crofts. The top layer of the building consists of a green living roof
and scattered olive trees, creating a nexus to the nearby
Cordoaria Garden, whilst referencing the Porta do Olival. Practical aspects
include a built-in car park, on the lower level.
Existing commercial space in the middle section, links the Clérigos
Tower, for spectacular views of Porto, giving the community a mixed-use experience
on the ground level, offering shops, cafes and social areas, with sensory viewpoints
from a different perspective out towards the tower of Clérigos, highlighting
the immediate topographic and historical identity of this site.
Conclusion
The topic and architectural projects studied
in this text, opens up many stimulating discussions. In one way or another,
community gateways affect everyone and can assist in coordinating, facilitating,
inspiring and morphing together a whole range of local issues and connect local
communities not just to each other, but with the wider realm. Although located in
quite different geographical landscapes, the projects studied here all have
something closely in common; the idea of the future for a group of likeminded
people who also welcome others to visit their building, and share this space. By
this I mean that the activities that take place in what we call a ‘community’
are seen as similar; the same, even, all linking to the contemporary
translation of the word community. This
is a generic word and as architects and designers we take into consideration
the complex content and meaning of this word. It is possible to get lost in such
everyday terminology, and in words such as community.
It is important to remember what the word really means, and the effects relating
to community of the past, present and future. Socio-economic and cultural
climates change, through various life cycles, and then return, older and wiser,
to come home.
This is where the gateway to the
community needs to be ready to welcome the old and new, young and old, a family
or just one person. In the studies of the buildings covered in this article we
see a range of approaches; usage of site, heritage, narrative and the forward
thinking technology and materials all add strong identity to each one of the
projects.
It is quite a task to design shared
space; to please and accommodate all user groups, functions, budgets and
aesthetics, to allow for change, learn from the past and through architecture; successfully
celebrate the future.
1 Cresswell, T (2004). Place: A Short Introduction.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd p.50
2 Malpas, J.E (2008). Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World.
Cambridge MA: MIT Press p. 107
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