St Lukes Community Center

KLa have been involved with the trustees at St. Lukes for a number of years. Working with an existing building has presented the institution with various challenges. We are helping them to shape their building so that it better responds to the needs of the community, improve how the building represents them as an organisation and to help attract new visitors to the centre.

The trust is housed in a collection of Victorian and Edwardian school buildings. To give the centre a cohesive character the first phase of the works focused on transforming the interiors by removing previous layers of refurbishment and re-lining them. Meeting rooms were inserted in a new floor in the roof space, teaching and commercial kitchens were formed, along with a multitude of new service spaces including a salon, dance hall and art spaces. A second phase included a new reception area, meeting rooms and a media room.

The third phase of the development will improve connectivity within the centre, by inserting a prominent new stair that connects the upper floors to the reception and café, provide growing space, create a welcoming new entrance and act as a beacon for the centres activities.

We have taken the form of a Victorian greenhouse and reimagined it in an inner city setting. The greenhouse steps and twists, the grown floor inflects like an open door.