Re-creating the context : the design of a community theater

Abstract

Herein lies the design of an imaginary building in a very real neighborhood. The building is, among other things, a theater, café, childcare facility and guest house. The neighborhood is a 100 year old urban residential neighborhood, a comfortably-scaled place that is well-liked by its inhabitants. The rationale for imagining a building into this context is the following: In a residential neighborhood, public and commercial buildings must be clearly seen as such, but ought not be so discontinuous as to disrupt the neighborhood. How, then, can the form of a public building reinforce the total form of the neighborhood, while establishing a clear difference in use? I have developed a method of analyzing an existing place in order to make conscious decisions about reinforcing and transforming the existing context, and applied it to the design of this single building.