Client handover

Steve and the design team

Gris and Sarah giving the presentation to the worshipping community

Before the new studio project began i went and visited the ARCH exhibition in All Hallows which was tremendously interesting to see the church take on this transformation and the coming together of the work by Trish and Simon. During the event I spoke to Steve, stating that we should keep in contact with the church to understand the impact of the work undertaken, whether or not it proves useful, which bits were more interesting for the church and also to understand to see what, if anything will be taken forward. We had said that a sensible time for this discussion would be the churches AGM (Annual General Meeting) meeting in April, as here they will discuss all aspects of church life, its ethos and direction for the upcoming year.

Before the new studio project began i went and visited the ARCH exhibition in All Hallows which was tremendously interesting to see the church take on this transformation and the coming together of the work by Trish and Simon.

Photo's of the ARCH exhibition (looks familiar Peter)

So student involvement has now finished on All Hallows and we have all gone our separate ways. I know we would like to thank all the workers and members of All Hallows for their hospitality and generosity throughout the design process. The experience gained by the entire design team through client and community interaction will prove invaluable to our individual architectural and social development and we can only hope that the work undertaken on behalf of the church and community centre act as a tool to guide the future of a valuable social resource.

Client meting 02

Inspirational messages within the creche

The presentation to a critical audience

Today was the groups second chance to meet the client team and present work in progress up to this point, proving to be encouraging, insightful and uneasily docile from the client. Some of the more telling points from the meeting (in no particular order) were;

1. the building is seen as a hub and want people to come here and want to attract people there to use the building
2. All Hallow's Church has tenuous connections with the other local community centres but wish to strengthen relationships with these other community and religious centres
3. we should consider the duality of approaches to the building (front and back facias)
4. wishes to make visible the activity within the building to the outside
5. building should be considered to have a fluidity of movement patterns and overlapping of uses
6. the 'greening' of the building should be considered as a tool of engagement with the community
7. skill sharing of the building and community users should be explored in more depth to help place with building within a community context
8. considering the site boundary as a 'green island'
9. enjoys the play of light within and around the building

Project deliverables and progression were;

1. the production of a strategic funding document to aid grant applications and a future visioning of the organisation, starting small and gradually growing to more extreme propositions
2. exploration of religious networks to All Hallow's Church

There was a general consensus that the problems the church currently faces are much bigger than just the physical maintenance, but also includes social engagement and outreach as the congregation is quite isolated due to their radical viewpoints.

"Leave the religion to us"

Steve - All Hallow's Church 2010

Client meting 01

Church approach

Our first meeting with the client (All Hallow's Church) took place today giving us a great opportunity to find out more about the organisation, its values and to develop an understanding of what was expected of us within the 6 week deadline.

During this visit we had the chance to speak directly to the Parish Council Committee (Steve, Paul, Nick, Mike, Sarah, Andrea and Pippa), listening to their personal interpretation of what they thought the building required in terms of a broader community context and the technical issues requiring attention, along with a quick tour of the building which highlighted such issues.

Entrance hall to cafe relationship Basement storage area

Building threshold Blocked access to the garden

Observations from the meeting were;

1. a strategic and focused understanding of the building and its relationship to the community is required
2. maintenance costs of the building was diminishing the possibility of community engagement
3. those who engage with the building are not from the local community (within the parish boundary) whilst the local students seem to ignore the resourcing provided by the church
4. the building is rigidly divided between secular uses from Monday - Saturday and religious uses on Sundays
5. they are in need of funding and would like some research into possible government or local grant available to them
6. wish to provide access to the garden area behind the church to avail of the views of the city
7. clutter within the building was seen as undesirable and some form of storage area or more efficient storage methods were required

Future meetings have been organised with both the Parish Council Committee and the resident artists (Trish and Simon)