The Approach

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Two vehicular accesses and two pedestrian entrances are available from Tildasley Street to the Yemeni Community Association site. Neither the vehicular access to parking spaces, nor the pedestrian access to entrances is clear for visitors and first time users. Car visitors are faced with a choice through two gates leading to limited parking at the front of the building, but the two are not connected. Further parking is available at the rear of the building, but only from one of the access gates.

Similarly first time pedestrians arriving at the building are presented with two entrance doors. The prominent and most visible entrance gives access to Skills for Life and Lifelong Learning activities, whilst the main entrance to the Yemeni Community Association is tucked away in a corner with no canopy or clear signage to emphasise its importance.

Every available piece of ground surrounding the building has been used for car parking with the exception of the grass and paving near the front door. This not only creates conflict between, pedestrians, and vehicles causing safety concerns for children, but also creates a cluttered approach. The parking to the rear of the building is remote from the main entrance and visitors either have a long walk around the building in adverse weather, or by-pass the access controlled doors and supervised entrance area by getting through rear doors encouraging them to be left open. Parking is poorly lit and unsupervised which encourages ‘on street’ parking.

Appearance

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Generally the elevations are weak with few distinguishing features to express the activities or functions carried out within the building. The image projected by the building is one of ‘a fortress’. Grilled windows, CCTV cameras attached to the building on tall poles, and perimeter fencing topped with coils of barbed wire, give a visual message of keeping people out, rather than welcoming them inside a community building.

The single storey building has been extended and adapted several times in its relatively short life for a variety of uses. The building has the style of an office building, but is dominated by the large Staples Stationary store next door. Plastic weatherboarding has been used to fascias and sloping boards above windows. Rendered and red/ brown brickwork walls provide the support to beams supporting the flat felted roof. To this basic shell, tanks, air conditioning units, and signs have been added externally, with surface cables feeding security lights and cameras.

A temporary mobile building serves as a crèche and nursery unit and part of the car park is fenced off as an outdoor play area. These facilities are poor and not acceptable to OFSTED standards. Although from a child protection standpoint these separate facilities have the advantage of being isolated from the other activities, access is from the main building with staff, parents and children having to go outside from the main building to get to the crèche facilities. No outdoor play equipment is available for imaginative play.

Circulation

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Generally the elevations are weak with few distinguishing features to express the activities or functions carried out within the building. The image projected by the building is one of ‘a fortress’. Grilled windows, CCTV cameras attached to the building on tall poles, and perimeter fencing topped with coils of barbed wire, give a visual message of keeping people out, rather than welcoming them inside a community building.

Internally the main reception is small, dark and uninviting. People waiting at reception obstruct anyone else entering the building, and the waiting area has no natural light or aspect to the outside. This makes the space appear cramped and dismal. Consequently the space is just a thoroughfare, and not conducive for small meetings and/or socialising use.

Several rooms are hired by outside agencies to provide revenue for the Yemeni Community Association. These require separate ancillary facilities such as toilets and kitchen, which have to be duplicated in other parts of the building for other users. This does not encourage efficient use of the facilities and clearly restricts community interaction within the centre. Disabled toilet facilities are limited to the conference/hired rooms, so again users in other parts of the building have difficult access to use these facilities. Previous shared occupation of the building has resulted in fragmented rooms with poor connections.

Several rooms are compromised by people moving through to get to other parts of the building, which imposes restrictions on the privacy of occupiers of those rooms. To get to the gym or advice office, visitors have to travel through the main reception office or the multipurpose room. The main circulation routes are not obvious and are poorly signposted. In the multi-purpose room which is also used as the prayer room and youth club, two structural columns inconveniently stand where walls have been removed to open up the space. These restrict the use of the space. Storage space for the various groups using the premises is also very limited and equipment has to be moved and reorganised between changes of use.