Community

Buildings for communities are places where people come together, often for recreational activities, but also for mutual support. For these reasons these buildings are a kind of focal point and it is not uncommon for such buildings to be individual and, sometimes, isolated structures. There is an expectation that the buildings, and the activities they support, lift the user or visitor and become special places.

Many of what we call community buildings are in rural locations and respond to the shape of the landscape and to the form of the local architecture. The design, in a sense, has to grow out of the setting and it for this reason that we often use natural materials such as slate, stone or timber but, equally, will consider the use of metal, glass and modern materials in urban locations.

One of the purposes of community buildings is to enhance well being and health and, therefore, it is appropriate that they should become prototypes for sustainable and accessible design.

‘Always a little further’ might be the motto for community buildings; normally flat ceilings become open volumes, the structure is revealed so that there can be an understanding and appreciation of what architecture can achieve.

Therefore community buildings must relate to the users and their settings but also be innovative and forward looking.