The brief for my final live project was to design a multifunctional centre for life on the Isles of Scilly, driven by the need for a new home for the islands museum. The overall principles were to focus on 'Technologies of making', due to limitations around infrastructure and materials. 'Civic economy' to help sustain the islands and 'Community infrastructure'.
Working with real clients such as the islands partnership trust and the I.O.S wildlife trust to design proposals that would add to a growing body of work looking at implementing such a centre in the future.
My projects ethos was to address some of the issues around Island living, but also the benefits such a scheme could bring, with the focus set around the mantra “Education, Community, Play”
A centre for life needs to be just that, full of life.
To generate this the project includes a post 16 education centre, creche and soft play. Lively frontages, community spaces and public domain intertwine the centre within its context, connecting it to the stunning coastline it nestles in, giving islanders a sense of ownership.
All of this would be encompassed under an overarching roof to enable construction in poor weather conditions. Adverse weather is not just a Scilly trait, but when coupled with a busy tourist season in the summer months that is a mainstay of the islands economy it poses problems.
It's noted in the Islands action plan to avoid large building projects in these periods so by including a flying factory on site to manufacture the build but also train apprentices and provide opportunities for Islanders it would negate many of these pertinent issues.
