A Building for Sundays

William Martel.
Tutors: Chris Barton, Pip Cheshire.

A ‘Building for Sundays’ articulates the belief that a successful community is built upon relationships between people, activities, and the outdoor environment. This proposal sits at the heart of a large proposed urban development, acting as an epicentre for community engagement.

This project asks; how can a piece of civic architecture encourage a feeling of community within a development that is still fresh from creation? What activities are best suited to foster these relationships? How can a project inspire interaction with its surrounding environment?

The spaces within the building can be categorised into active spaces and quiet spaces, placed according to their relationship with the surrounding site. The main entrance sits within a lively atrium that deconstructs formal boundaries between internal and external occupation. From here we can move north to the cafe and formal gallery, or south to the second gallery, community classrooms, theatre, and playground.

The stark materials and formal gestures entice users once, but the multitude of activities retains them. A Building for Sundays is a project you can return to each weekend trying new and exciting activities, or simply to walk past on your way out into the landscape.