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Bensham Grove: Learning to Belong

Part 1 Project 2010
Alice Gunter
 Newcastle University | UK
The project was set in Bensham, a deprived part of Gateshead, where social problems have caused a divide in the area leading to a lack of community and identity. Bensham Grove Community Centre is a scheme that already exists so the project aimed to expand its reach and find the best way to realise the work of the centre and the larger role it can play in the neighbourhood. The original Bensham Grove building was the starting point for the project, before searching for real solutions to the problems posed by the location, façade and stigma of a community centre.

Biomimicry is the idea of looking at animals in their natural environment and recreating the concepts that they use. Ants create a mesmerizing community, working together for the greater good of their colony as a whole. Using this way of working, a community centre is created where everyone feels part of a team working towards a better society. The design came from the idea of having a ‘nest’ in which everyone would feel comfortable and assemble. The original house is used for the core because of its strong physical presence in Bensham. The rest of the building is made up from separate ‘pods’ sitting under large concrete undulating roofs that form ribbons running down the sloping site. Visitors to the community centre first gather in the ‘nest’ and then work their way out to the different pods, creating their own pathways, an idea which ties into the principles of adult learning, where choices need to be offered. The building uses large open corridors in which people can gather and over time the coarse concrete materiality of the building will become smooth, meaning these areas of pause and the pathways made around them will become clearly defined, allowing learners to control the paths they take but still under some direction and guidance, an important theory of adult learning.

Alice Gunter

Located in Gateshead, this project was based in and around an existing Adult Education and Community provision. Offering students an opportunity to engage with a complex social and site condition, the project also challenged many common preconceptions about education- requiring them to question what it might mean to ‘belong’.

Bensham Grove is a product of the late 19th Century Settlement Movement, founded on principles of social change and self-improvement through education, and the philanthropic endeavours of the founding family, together with the continuing efforts of the staff over many years, have ensured that the provision continues to be held in real affection by the surrounding community. Responding to the existing domestic and homely environment, whilst positing a fresh new identity and integrating a significant new-build provision, lay at the heart of the project.

Students were encouraged to refine and reinterpret a multi-layered brief, integrating teaching and learning facilities alongside, or within, broader community focused spaces. Art as a catalyst for change was maintained as a strong theme throughout the project, reflecting strong historic associations to the Arts and Crafts Movement through Morris, the Pre- Raphaelites and the work of the ‘Pitmen Painters’.

The existing context of historic villa and mature walled garden, located at the convergence of traditional ‘Tyneside flats’ and a more refined suburban context, offered an intriguing social and physical complexity with which to wrestle and necessitated a close reading and particular personal response, explored using a diverse mix of communication techniques.

Alice developed a strategy to stitch the centre into its context through ribbons of landscape that interconnect both programme and site. Teaching and community, private and public, internal and external spaces have been woven together in a clear statement of regeneration and catalyst for change in the community. The proposal aimed to encourage public engagement: stepping into the building, on the roof landscape, connecting with parkland. Adaptability is a key principal in this proposal- spaces have been designed to accommodate multiple activities, facilitated through both rational and imaginative planning principles. This is an ambitious and imaginative proposal whose high ambitions were maintained throughout the development process.

Tutor(s)
2010
Title Block_ By looking to nature to solve problems in a fragmented community.
Biomimicry_ Patterned energy piece. Learning how ants work together as a collective and how the way that adults learn will determine the form of the building.
Mapping and Massing_ By mapping out different routes, pathways will take the learners though the building are shown. Points of pause are created where lines cross. Massing models provided imagery that clearly show how the steepness of the site could pay a
Elevation_ This elevation illustrates how the concrete ribbons complement the original building, showing how each ribbon has a different identity and how visitors use the external spaces that run parallel to one another, creating a weave for them to make
Sections_ Cutting through the building at different points the sections demonstrate how the ribbons provide a shelter for the spaces that sit under them. The undulating roofs create drama through sharps changes in height. Pathways are made across the buil
The Nest_ The original house contains a café, meeting rooms and prayer space. These areas are all spaces for visitors to retreat to. The house has been gutted and left as a hollow shell. Two ‘pods’ are situated on the first floor, hung as to appear floati
The Landscape Design_ The site itself is small, but surrounded by a recreational area. By integrating the building into the site the new Community Centre becomes part of the landscape and although the building has a strong presence it does not overpower t
Approach from Gateshead_ As you travel down the hill from Gateshead, the concrete roofs travel down the slope on the left as if disappearing into the ground. The planes all start at different levels and therefore create exciting points as they cross. The
View from the Gardens_ The ribbons run up the slope and visitors travel up these ribbons and are able to cross them when their levels coincide at defined points, these points make places for people to interact and create a break in the strict thresholds –
View of the Market Square_ One problem which arose in the brief was the busy main road adjacent to the original house and high wall which surrounded it. The corner of the site is opened up which made it more approachable to new visitors. The large corrido
Development Model_ This model was created to determine how the roofs would fold down and how the spaces between them would create moments of pause. The model shows how the sloping site is complemented by the slopes of the ribbon roofs.
Concept and Final Design Model_ The concept model shows how the ‘pods’ have large storage areas for the visitors to control their working environments keeping all furniture out of the away. Then brought out and arranged by the learners themselves. The fin
Structural Build Up_ The glass facades of the Community Centre had to be able to regulate the solar gain because of the large area of glazing. By using a triple glazing system with aluminium mesh set within two of the panes, the interior is protected from
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