The brief was to design a mixed use building which would house several functions - a beauty parlour, a cafe, a doctor's practice and an exercise space. The concept is for a single storey pavilion composed of several volumes each housing a different function. The broken down scale of the pavilion responds to the residential domestic context and the adjacent self-creating town park. It was important to define the relationship of the new building to a small baroque chapel adjacent to our site. The entrance space is therefore orientated towards it while also functioning as an outdoor seating terrace for the new cafe in the most public part of the building. The entrance piazza further supports wider urban relationships, mainly pedestrian routes between a nearby large housing estate and the town centre. The client is therefore dedicating part of the property to a public realm and responsibly addresses a listed chapel and surrounding urban context.
The building comprises of 5 pavilions which form a cluster. Each has a single pitched roof and surrounds a small external courtyard, the real social heart of the building. The courtyard can be entered from most parts of the building. The cluster is internally a step free space, so towards the back it is submerged into the site slope, which in effect allows views over the building towards the chapel and the historic town centre.
