Plans for multi-million pound community hub at St Blazey is taking shape
"THIS is about the community taking ownership from an early stage, it has got to be something that the community wants and then they are involved in making it happen."
This is the vision of Purl Design, the town's sustainable architectural firm behind the design for the multimillion-pound St Blazey AFC Community and Sports Hub on Station Road.
Two years ago Peter Hume – whose seven-year-old company
is based in the town where he lives with his children and his wife and Purl Design senior partner Michelle – was approached by project leaders behind the scheme as they started to explore the option of providing residents with more sports facilities.
is based in the town where he lives with his children and his wife and Purl Design senior partner Michelle – was approached by project leaders behind the scheme as they started to explore the option of providing residents with more sports facilities.
Mr Hume said: "We thought it sounded like a good idea but felt that what St Blazey really needs is a community sports centre that can provide what the football club wants but also what everyone else wants as well."
With his imagination sparked by the 100-year-old chronophotograph entitled The Human Body In Action, by the French scientist Etienne-Jules Marey, Mr and Mrs Hume set about designing a building of the future.
Although Sports England – who can fund part of the project – have detailed its specifications for what the building should look like inside, the couple have spent the past few years ensuring St Blazey AFC Community and Sports Hub will be "future-proof".
Mr Hume said: "We have spoken to businesses, landowners, Imerys, Cornwall Council and they are all supportive of the idea and so the past two years have been spent saying, 'OK, how do we achieve this?' There's a very strong community in St Blazey; that's important, and everyone is behind something happening."
, landowners, Imerys, Cornwall Council and they are all supportive of the idea and so the past two years have been spent saying, 'OK, how do we achieve this?' There's a very strong community in St Blazey; that's important, and everyone is behind something happening."
The building will encompass multi-sports provisions for all ages and abilities and full disabled access.
It will also serve as a centre for the parish, providing a café with training opportunities, spaces which can be utilised by businesses and areas which will open up for use by community groups, from quilters to drama clubs.
A pop-up cinema could even feature within the hub.
Mrs Hume said: "For any community event there will be a space."
The hub is also sure to pick up premiership points for its ecological design. These include photovoltaic and solar thermal panels to meet the building's electricity and heat demands, a grass roof and toilets which will utilise harvested rainwater.
design. These include photovoltaic and solar thermal panels to meet the building's electricity and heat demands, a grass roof and toilets which will utilise harvested rainwater.
Residents may have the chance to work alongside local tradespeople to help build the centre.
Investigation of the viability of making bricks on site, using local larch to clad the building and crushed glass in the building's foundations to address potential flooding issues is already under way.
Mr Hume said: "Local trades could mentor college students or maybe the unemployed in brick-making and in doing so the students will learn a skill.
"The principle is that it's basically as sustainable as it can be. We know there are lots of sports halls in Cornwall that suffer when the figures don't add up to run them."
He added the hub was designed to be as cheap and efficient to run as possible and was a "bit of a blueprint" for what other buildings should aim to be.
to run as possible and was a "bit of a blueprint" for what other buildings should aim to be.
Mrs Hume said: "It has been exciting but a huge amount of research has gone into this project to make sure we understand how the building can involve the community in the build and for it to be future-proof and sustainable."
Funding first needs to be found for a planning application to be submitted to Cornwall Council and supporters have begun to raise the cash required to get the scheme over its first hurdle.
Read more: http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Plans-multi-million-pound-community-hub-St-Blazey/story-20998527-detail/story.html#ixzz2zmzeoFwN
1 comment:
fantastic vision really hope all the community gets behind this idea and make it happen well done to you both
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