• Colchester Community Centre

    Our Community Centre project for the Dacon Trust in Colchester is about to start on site.  Here we have taken an existing commercial building with accommodation over, on a prominent corner site. Through a series of extensions and complete refurbishment created a new Community Centre,  the scheme incorporates a Café, Art Gallery alongside teaching facilities and all the back of house activities required by the charity.

    The project features a range of different types of space, all filled with light, ranging from the triple height void to the art gallery, to glazed panels giving onto light shafts lighting the various teaching spaces.

    The articulation of the façade is also given careful consideration and particularly so at the entrances and to the first-floor extension where brickwork of various types and detail are employed alongside frameless glazing.  The roof of the first-floor extension is finished as a greens sedum roof with a variety of rooflights and light shafts set within.

    With its mix of uses and location on a busy high street the project is set top be a well used centre for the Dacon Trust for years to come.

    Working as Architects in the Community sector, Shape Architecture is always happy to discuss any future community project no matter what size or type.