The Hope Town community centre is situated in the Ocean View township, Cape Town. The client bought a small existing residence on the main street with the desire to re-appropriate it as a community centre. Additional rooms for educational purposes, a skills training workshop and new bathroom facilities were added. Because the centre will be used for various future projects and gatherings, spaces and circulation have to be flexible and also considerate of private vs. public rooms that are due to change over time. The staircase at the back of the existing house ensures circulation around the existing building and to the outer courtyard without interrupting possible gatherings. It provides a minor but significant extension of space in the workshop and also becomes an element that articulates the old from the new. The architectural language used in the new front porch is repeated at a larger scale with the light columns and roof structure of the new educational rooms at the back. The threshold between the courtyard and the gathering space can open up completely and repeats the language of the stair element, to allow seating and lingering
