The Venue on the Green

When we were asked to take on this project planning permission was already granted for a larger building, which was designed by another architect who we know and respect. He had grown tired of the painfully drawn out process and the Parish Council concluded after eight years of fund raising that they had to be more modest in their aims. The built scheme retains the original concept of a highly modelled entrance façade oriented off grid to face the Green. The roof, previously a mono-pitch, has been given greater emphasis by employing the geometry of a hyperbolic paraboloid. This has structural advantages and the form has echoes of the adjacent skate park. The primary function is a venue for local young people. With this in our thoughts we made the outside tough (galvanised metal and Rodeca cellular polycarbonate) and the interior gentle (almost entirely timber in Kerto and shuttering ply).