The competition for Shinfield Parish Council (SPC) sought a multi-disciplinary architect led team to design a new community centre to provide facilities to meet the needs of the local community.
New community facilities were identified as essential infrastructure within the Wokingham Borough Core Strategy Development Plan and their expected usage defined within the Wokingham Borough Council Shaping Our New Communities Document.
The proposed new building will be situated next to the existing Parish Hall standing on the site of the old British Legion building. New facilities are required to meet the future demands of the growing community, in the longer term there may be an opportunity for further expansion on the site if demand for further space was deemed necessary by way of demolishing and rebuilding the existing parish hall to make way for an extension to the new building.
5 shortlisted practices were selected to proceed to the ITT phase of the Competition:
- Adams and Sutherland
- AOC Architecture
- Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt
- Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture
- Studio Partington
The design proposal submitted by AOC Architecture was selected as the competition winner following clarification interviews to a panel including, Jonathan McDowell acting as the RIBA Adviser and Peter Hughes, chairman of Shinfield Parish Council who said:
"We originally decided to run a RIBA competition as this would give us a number of different designs to choose from rather than appointing a single architect. Essentially, we were looking to build a community centre that would stand the test of time, fit in with its surroundings, and be something we could be proud of. We developed a tight brief for our requirements and each architects’ firm worked to this brief. In the end we received five very different designs and our panel chose the design that answered all the main points in the brief and delivered the iconic design we were seeking. This was a unanimous decision and the winner, AOC, will now be appointed to take the building through to planning permission and construction.”
