Whiteley Community Centre, Fareham
The new community centre was commissioned by Fareham Borough Council and was completed in April 2002. It is part of a broader development plan that includes the Civic Trust Award-winning Whiteley Primary School.
The Community Centre provides a function hall, pre-school with places for 24 children, coffee lounge, offices for admin and meeting rooms.
The overall form is a barn-like structure of steel and load-bearing masonry, with a suspended concrete plank floor and pitched roofs covered in cedar shingles. Although flexible in its use, the building is designed to be readily extended to provide complimentary services such as retail and residential units.
Helping to create a sense of place, the materials for the project were
the same as those used for the Primary School. These not only site well
with the woodland setting but are proven to last well over time. The pitched
roof is topped with a continuous lantern that lights and ventilates the
spaces below.
