In response to gentrification and lack of entrepreneurial opportunities threatening to stagnate the arrival neighbourhood of Neckarstadt-West, Mannheim, the scheme proposes a community-owned adult education and enterprise centre providing accessible and vocational skills along with the framework in which they can be applied. Imagined as a community-driven social enterprise, users can learn skills while also having the opportunity to put them to use as the centre expands, whether that be in a self-build capacity or inhabiting new work and business spaces.
A dense residential context drives the form of the building with chamfered, top-lit masses developed in response to the proximity of residential windows and balconies, reducing both overlooking and overshadowing. The scheme takes advantage of the cities proximity to the ‘Black Forest’ providing a huge supply of timber products, that heavily influences a materiality that also aims to embody the core values and craft based, accessible uses that the building offers.
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