displays of community

Community Centre

studio | 2b | summer 2022 software | rhino 7, grasshopper, enscape, adobe illustrator & photoshop supervisor | Lola Sheppard north section west section east section

On the site that was once the Hamilton Brick Works, Displays of Community aims to bring communities together through art, events, and exhibitions. The project encourages community initiative through a large maker-space and artist studio, indoor and outdoor exhibition space and archives, open gardening plots, and a café. The indoor exhibition space acts as large multi-purpose room able to be modifi ed depending on the needs of the community. Book, display, and archive cases sit on the original tracks in the large building, which were once used to move brick throughout the space. For large events, they can all be pushed to one end, creating an almost uninterrupted fl oor. Archives can be moved out of the way for exhibitions. The space can be adjusted to fi t any ratio of exhibition, archives, and community events, while most of the time being all three.

The adaptive re-use strategy leaves almost all the existing structure of the site in-tact using existing conditions to its advantage to create diff erent moments. The new building’s footprint is slightly skewed from the original building to create these moments and to maximize light into the building. For example, framing on the exterior is often used to highlight found objects from the site, while the interior framing defi nes more intimate spaces in the building. The water path on the directs patrons through these conditions, channeling people into the entrances and exits, while also working as a guide through the art and gardens displayed outside. The project works to exhibit the history of the site while providing space for communities to come in and make it their own.