‘Making It Happen: New Community Architecture’ at the RIBA Architecture Gallery

‘Making It Happen: New Community Architecture’ at the RIBA Architecture Gallery presents four projects made by architectural practices working directly with community groups to create public buildings in the age of austerity.

Ph: James Robertshaw

After the closure of Hastings’s nineteenth-century pier in 2006, the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust was formed by local people to raise funds to acquire the pier and reopen it, and the resultant design by dRMM Architects won the 2017 Stirling Prize. (Sadly the pier’s operating charity went into administration in 2018, and the pier was sold to a private owner).

Ph: Ross Campbell

‘The Lookout’, at Loch Lomond National Park, was completed in 2014 by Processcraft and formed part of the Scottish Scenic Routes initiative, intended to boost Scottish tourism and local economies, and to encourage a closer look at the landscape. The small, mirrored structure with seating, was conceived as a place for engagement, contemplation and a sensory filled response to the landscape.

Ph: Apparata

At Old Manor Park Library in east London, architect Apparata has returned a disused facility to life with interventions that responded to both the history of the building and its relationship with the surrounding area, and focused on using local suppliers and tradespeople. The architects worked as main contractors on the project, collaborating with designer-maker Philip T Ryan and a team of apprentices and volunteers to strip out and survey the interior before refurbishing it to accommodate affordable studios at the rear of the building, and a community-focused arts residency at the front.

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Takeshi Hayatsu Architects has worked with art institution Grizedale Arts on small construction and design projects at the Coniston Institute, Cumbria, including a bread oven and an information pavilion, to engage students and the local community. Volunteers from the village are actively involved in the rejunvenation and redevelopment of the Institute, which is now a multi-functional space that is home to over a dozen local interest groups.

Phs: Luke Hayes

‘Making It Happen: New Community Architecture’ was designed by Hayatsu Architects and reflects the materiality and spatial qualities of each of the four featured projects. Exhibition visitors will cross the boardwalk of Hastings Pier, step onto a Ruskin-inspired tiled pavement, take a seat in a re-creation of a quiet space at Old Manor Park Library, and enjoy a place for reflection in the Lookout.

‘Making It Happen: New Community Architecture’
Until 29 April 2019, free entry
RIBA Architecture Gallery, 66 Portland Place, London, W1