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Tivoli Community Centre

Part 1 Project 2008
Fernanda Fuiza Brito
Kingston University Kingston | UK
The design proposal is an attempt to help the elderly find and maintain a sense of community, by providing work opportunities, education and leisure activities to the inhabitants of the care homes located in the Tivoli neighborhood, Margate.

The site is located in the south of Margate, between Tivoli Park Avenue and Tivoli Road. There are several care homes in the proximities of the Tivoli Area, which are disconnected from the historical and commercial centre of the city, where the main activities offered to the elderly are located.

The brief was developed in a way that the history of Tivoli in Margate would be emphasized by the main activity offered by the design proposal.

Archaeological remains of several Roman buildings have been discovered in the Isle of Thanet, which occupied strategic position in the transport and trade routes between Britain and the continent. According to excavations, this site was previously occupied by the Tivoli Villa. The studies reveal that the building was a successor to a very dense settlement of mid to late Iron Age. This was an important community where among other activities pottery production took place.

The main spaces are: a ballroom and a cafe, for bingos and afternoon tea dances, a nursery, a communal space where elders and children can interact, and a workshop for pottery production, which relates to the history of the Tivoli Villa.

Fernanda Fuiza Brito


Our students worke d in Margate on arange of projects that aimed to show "how small-scale,locally co-ordinated projects could regenerate a town. Fernanda's project is set in the Tivoli Park area of Margate where her research found a large proportion of elderly people. Her building brings together a Day Centre for the Elderly (focussed on a Tea Dance Hall), a children's nursery, and a pottery (for adult education.) The idea for the pottery came from her research into the place which revealed that Roman pottery fragments had been found on the site. Thus the project deals with deep aspects of pplace and past at the same time as it provides a contemporary place for social interaction. The building is dominated by its tall, brick chimney, which expresses the significant role of the kiln in making pots as well as being a symbol of domesticity and shelter. The material feel of Fernanda's building is dominated by bricks, a material formed from clay like the pots and transformed by fire.

2008
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