Lamees Hikmat

“A good city is like a good party, people stay longer than really necessary, because they are enjoying themselves” Jan Gehl

The project focuses on people and the community’s needs, and the hub will be an active and productive place. The people participate in creating the building’s functionality to fill the gaps with the lack of community facilities and support the existing activities by establishing a social hub available to all communities. While helping the people emotionally and physically enhances their mantel health and reflects upon finding spaces of connection and gaining perspective by being together in a healthy, positive place.

Project (Key point) thesis:

·         Architecture that helps develop a collaborative relationship.

·         Architecture for everyone through informal, inviting, friendly design.

·         Improving the local area and emphasis on district identity.

·         The community participates in the creation of the building’s functionality.

·         Sustainable approach in Architecture and function.

The programme:

The proposed site sits at the intersection of London Road and Main Street. A vital corner in the Calton area next to the Barras Market in the east of Glasgow, this current position as a place of much potential can be extracted by encouraging resilience and flexibility through a new development depending on the people’s needs; this location considers as a significant focal point in the urban fabric and the characteristic of the district.

This project is a response to the rapid increase in people’s isolation due to multiple reasons such as working from home, online shopping, online meeting platforms, distance learning, and some political reasons that sadly affect the district’s density. All these reasons more badly affect the formation of the community relationship. Therefore, increasing community interaction and socialisation is an essential need, and encouraging people from different backgrounds to integrate as apart from the whole society.

Therefore, the urgent social need is to create a place for everyone can gather every day, not for the weekend only, where people, regardless of their background, skill, age etc. By enhancing the social interaction with a quality time and enjoy themselves and are inspired by other people who are equipped with multiple arts and handcrafts skills, and get engaged with a variety of workshops, in addition, to spend some time expressing their feeling and revive the energy on their body inside the dancing studio. So, the proposed project is targeting all the neighbourhoods and people in Glasgow who will explore different social experiences and invite all families to have the best quality of time; the function will be deeply rooted in the district’s history.

Accordingly, the visitors in a single day in the centre will have the opportunity to either enjoy themselves in a contemporary dancing hall, have a fun time on the market; they can also attend different types of art and craft workshops, or read some books and use the computer in the library, enjoying the outdoor space and drink or eat in a café, or have a tour on the gallery, etc.

In this hub, people of different ages can communicate and test different cultures, arts, music, and food and promote sharing of knowledge and experiences through architectonic and functional design.