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Category
Community & Arts
Location
Torquay, Devon
Client
Chapter One Housing
Cost
£1,900,000
Floor Area
1012 sqm
Start Date
October, 2010

Project

The Rooute Project

A sustainable £2,000,000 community Building

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Project Brief

RSa were commissioned by Chapter One Housing Asoociation and Shekinah Mission to design a £2.0 Million community Building in Torquay.

Project Detail

The project is a partnership between Torbay Council, Shekinah Mission and Chapter 1 Housing Association and is an education, training and employment facility for the most socially excluded members of Torbay.

The building is a sustainable, multi-use social enterprise centre for public use which will increase the skills and self-confidence of the most disadvantaged communities in Torbay and enable them to make a full and active contribution to the local economy. The building will act as a hub for wide reaching social and community based activities and provides support to the community which reinforces skills development and supports enterprise of businesses and individuals.

The building is located at Lymington Road Coach Station and includes coach waiting area, a landscaped public courtyard, café, teaching accommodation, a lecture theatre and administration offices. It also reinstates the existing CCTV centre, taxi rank and WC’s currently housed on the site.

The building will be partially built using unskilled labour.
The project is to meet Breeam ‘excellent’ criteria and was previously supported by the community as part of the Mayoral vision.

(Nick Bye) Planning Approval was granted in October 2010 and the project is under review.

Client Testimonial

I first met Rud two years ago when he was working on the new ‘super hostel’ on Plymouth which is due to open later this year. Once of the key ingredients on this project was to ensure that the design team understood and included homeless people’s views on the proposal. I observed Rud at several consultation events where he was working with homeless people to hear their views, not in a tokenistic way but in a way that gave them real ownership and buy-in. He appears to have a natural way of engaging with people regardless of their circumstance and always gave a genuine impression of trying to understand the needs and concerns of others.

Since then we have employed Rud Sawers Architects as the project architect on the construction of the Rooute Centre in Torbay. The Rooute Centre is a self-build enterprise centre in the heart of Torbay which is due to commence early this year. The projects were a particularly challenging project not only due to its self-build nature, but also due to its location which is in the middle of a residential area.

Rud has excelled himself on this project not only from a design perspective but also from a community consultation viewpoint. He has held regular consultation events with the public, which initially was very challenging turned out to be hugely positive.

Rud always answered public concerns in a very honest and considerate way and was clearly one a the key contributors in getting the project through the planning process.

If you are looking for a mainstream normal architect, Rud is clearly not your person. If however you want an enthusiastic architect who cares passionately about his work and the impact of his work Rud is clearly someone you should seriously consider.

John Hamblin - CEO – Shekinah Mission, Plymouth

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Get In Touch
RIBA Chartered Architects
Projects Practice Sketches News Contact
Address

Rud Sawers Architects
The Studio
Holly Cottage
Dartington
Devon
TQ9 6DQ

Email

rud@rudsawersarchitects.com

Phone

M / 07713 514127

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