IF_DO . photos: © Nick Dearden
IF_DO was commissioned by the Methodist Church to design a new community centre specifically aimed at enhancing community cohesion and addressing issues of social isolation and loneliness. The new community centre, named ‘The Space,’ is located on the Elsinge Estate in north-east London. The estate, built in the 1950s, has seen little redevelopment or investment, and so this project provides a new, and much-needed piece of social infrastructure that includes gathering spaces for the community, accommodating both formal and informal events and activities.
The building offers 650 square meters of flexible space spread over two floors. On the ground floor is a welcoming community cafe, and pre-school overlooking the park, and on the first floor is a large hall to host major community events, and more private spaces like meeting rooms, study areas, and rooms for yoga and prayer.
The building’s structure is formed using Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and Glulam, which reduces the building’s carbon footprint and provides a series of dramatic, warm and calming spaces, while the outside is clad in masonry under a large, sweeping zinc roof. The kinked sculptural form of the building turns away from the busy road adjacent to form a buffer, while embracing the public park and community to the south with its low, welcoming glazed elevations and covered nooks for sheltered play and socialising. This series of photographs captures the moment between completion of the shell and core, and prior to the interior fit-out.
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