design studio 4.2
a city garden for Dock Street

this proposal for a new community centre used limited site area to provide a functioning community garden to the Warehouse Hill area of Leeds. A two storey basement with a highly intensive green roof utilised limited site area to create a city park on the south bank of the river Aire, encouraging ownership through design to residents struggling with loneliness.

tutors: Justin Lunn, Ornella Ourio

Recognising an increased benefit claimant count in the immediate locality, I aimed to provide opportunities of ownership and involvement for unemployed day-to-day users. Field research informed a design that addressed the (highly contingent) realities of community centre operation, resulting in spaces that were highly functional in their range of uses.

Weakening the edges of what is built, I proposed a transient, ground level entrance space that slowly introduced users to the regulated indoors.

The construction above ground comprised a simple softwood timber frame set back from full height glazing along the length of the building.