This project is a community center, located in a small town called Linwood, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The client is the Linwood Community Development Trust (LCDT), and their idea is ‘for the community, by the community’.

Linwood has a long history which can trace back to the Roman Empire before it was known for an industrial town for cotton and flax production at the end of the 18th century, and later for the coal oil works, ironstone and car manufacture in the 1900s. Beginning from the 2000s, Linwood faced a decline due to various reasons. The Linwood Community Development Trust is a group of volunteers who are determined to regenerate, retain and improve the community. 

A community center should let people feel welcoming and engaging, as they were an inseparable part of the community. As the designer, my original concern is to bring people together, using a more open floor plan instead of using walls and structures to divide the spaces into small units. It is necessary to create a connection between spaces with different functions, not only physically but also visually. By creating openings on the walls and using slidable glass glazings, the few main spaces can potentially be joined into one, and at the same time preserved the separation between spaces.