Full Circle @ Docklands Youth & Community Centre

Full Circle @ Docklands was established in the 1980s following the historic St Pauls Riots, which were the result of widespread frustration around social inequality and lack of community cohesion. It has since evolved to become the heart of the community, delivering a broad range of services in response to local needs.

Due to the historic social value of the building, and a restricted budget, the practice began by holding extensive consultations. Despite being in lockdown, teenagers, youth workers, reps from homeless charities, occupational therapists and dance schools all fed into the design process. Wider engagement saw 120 people participate online.

The feedback helped to prioritise architectural interventions that would provide maximum social value, and highlighted where alterations could best support the charity’s business case, such as increasing the flexibility of existing spaces, a new shower, welcoming reception, offices and co-working spaces, and improving accessibility and acoustics throughout.

A light-touch approach saw robust flooring and furniture installed, with simple coloured paint used strategically to celebrate social interactions; such as in the new reception, kitchen servery, and seating area at the heart of the centre.

Consultations also revealed a desire to share the charity’s ethos and history in the redesign. This led to artwork that shared the charity’s past, present and future with visitors. Murals were developed through workshops with young people, giving them authorship of their space.

The project has facilitated the charity to emerge from lockdown with strength, a sense of pride and regular users who feel ownership of the building changes, despite most having not being in the centre for more than a year.

Annual CO2 data was not provided