Jacobs Architecture’s green design for a youth center in the London Borough of Havering, located in Harold Hill, will be a breathing reality in no time. Thanks to a £4.7m support by the Big Lottery Fund’s Myplace Scheme, work on the caterpillar-shaped building, named the Havering Center will start in June. Jacobs’ engineer will ensure that the site’s potential is maximized while keeping its carbon footprint to the lowest possible. When completed, it will be ‘the first carbon-neutral building in the borough.’
I met about 15 teenagers and worked the design through with them. The caterpillar came out of 3D modeling – but it is also a metaphor for what it provides [change and development].
Says project architect Shelley Smith from Jacobs Architecture.
Special emphasis has been laid on natural ventilation, natural day lighting, high insulation levels and solar panels. A local radio station, a Prospects graduate careers center, a juice bar, café, crèche, dance and music performance space, recording studio, bike workshop, and an information service and computer suite is proposed for the center. Notably, glue-lam timber has been knitted into the performance hall’s facade to create ‘double-height’ interior spaces. North-facing ‘IT hall’ will catch most of the sunlight without overheating the space.
Via: DesignWeek