A re-employment focused community response

My project ‘Ever Forward’ stemmed from the motto on the Weston-super-Mare coat of arms and a desire to design proposals that could seek to push the economically struggling town in a new, positive direction. Following on from my primer project, which provided a meanwhile use of a roof garden for the disregarded site and aimed to bring the community together with a self-build timber structure, my comprehensive project acted as the latter development to bring the site to life with a continuation of a community focused proposal that could have a positive impact.

The programme for the building originated around a community building that focused on the pressing need of high unemployment rate of 9% in the Central Ward of the town. The building offers spaces for interaction, between unemployed and employers, between enthusiastic entrepreneurs and for the wider community also. Hoping to provide spaces for the community to come together and offering an opportunity for rehabilitation from economic instability and unemployment. The building therefore offers flexible spaces that can be used for any needs the community may have, currently and in years to come.

The proposal includes the retrofit of an existing building on Weston’s seafront, as well as the regeneration of a disused carpark, seeking to create internal and external spaces for the local community to enjoy and thrive in. All internal spaces centre around the main courtyard, opening onto this large yet enclosed new public space, which also seeks to be flexible in its uses. A key theme for the project is ‘low-tech’ due to the unit brief, with passive design, flexibility and sustainable materials and construction methods employed throughout.

A cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure is used with waste-based bricks utilised externally on the façade, which owe to a circular economy whilst linking into the local seaside vernacular. And so, let’s hope that Weston-super-Mare can move in that direction, ever forwards.