Tidworth Development Trust had the idea to build a community resource center after conversations with their Management Committee concluded that… ‘there is no community heart in Tidworth, there’s nothing for the whole community.’ The new Community Resource Centre was seen as an opportunity to create a community heart for Tidworth that was run wholly for the benefit of local people.
Different elements of the brief are distributed across the site according to whether they are more ‘domestic’ or more ‘civic’ in nature. There is a Youth Facility which provides the space they need to occupy unselfconsciously whilst still maintaining a central location in the scheme. There are training and conference facilities for the Development Trust, alongside a new home for the Town Council and licensed marriage rooms.
Across an enclosed courtyard is a community library and cafe which completes the centrally focused services, supported by a suite of Citizen’s Advice and Information rooms and office space for Youth Services and Police surgery space. The scheme is completed by a children’s nursery and creche which has been carefully designed to provide a large amount of natural playspace as well as covered external spaces to promote a close link between the building and its rural, natural context.
‘The building will provide services that aren’t currently available in Tidworth, a place for people to use to hang out so there’s a focus for the community’.
