A Community Centre revives Stokes Croft

A final-year project situated within Stokes Croft, Bristol; a neglected and run down neighbourhood notorious for its homelessness and abandonment which serves as a significant cultural hub and a major force for political and social change. The driving political and societal forces within Stokes Croft are The Stokes Croft Land Trust (SCLT) and The Peoples Republic Of Stokes Croft (PRSC), of which are used as the projects backbone to develop a new Centre For Community Change to ensure a bright, artistic and secure future for the fragile Stokes Croft.

In the initial stages of the Project, a 2 phased constructional process was established. This allowed for the renovation of the PRSC Headquarters (my allocated site, and then in the future years, the complete rebuild into the Centre For Community Change. In response to extensive research, this proposal aims to act as a catalyst for a new future to Stokes Crofts’ community.

The Centre for Community Change aims to revitalise Stokes Croft and reaffirm community ownership. It will encourage the revival of informal community benefiting activities within Stokes Croft, in particular, rent-able office, desk, art, market, event and gardening space. The need for more public designed space within the vulnerable Stokes Croft becomes a necessity to ensure its permanence both socially and economically, attracting residents out of the urbanised city and into the community-oriented town.

The architectural design of the Centre aims to maximise informal social interaction, evidently seen within the community workspaces, that features an open plan layout with an exposed glulam structure; this aims to incorporate warmth and further emphasise the informality of work. In addition, the green light atrium that extrudes from first floor to winter garden is designed to feel like an extension of Jamaica Street, flowing through the centre of the artist and office studios and encapsulating Stokes Crofts working residents with natural light and an abundance of green infrastructure.