Nurture Community Centre

The Future of Brisbane

Nurture Community Centre was designed to answer the following question, “Can Interior design be used to support the community, specifically those formed during the COVID-19 lockdowns, through biophilic and passive design principles?”

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an emerging societal problem in the hospitality industry. Many small local restaurants and cafes have either closed down or currently struggle under financial stress. This has left a gap in the community as society has not been able to come together and socialise at a ‘third place’. The community centre has been designed after research revealed the need for society to have a place that was not home, or work to build community resilience to withstand times of hardship. Research was conducted into Australian cafes’, as well as where people found their sense of community during lockdown and this helped determine the activity spaces required. COVID-19 restrictions were taken into account and have tried to be met through passive and biophilic design principles. A conceptual model was made in order to map sun paths to ensure activity spaces and furniture receive maximum sunlight for disinfection; mirrored materials have also been added along the angled beams throughout the void to direct light further within the space. Ventilation has also been maximised within the space with trombe walls at each corner of the void to be used as air purifying devices. The use of sunlight and ventilation were key within this design in hopes that the building will be able to disinfect itself. This project aims to find new and innovative ways for how public buildings throughout Brisbane can be designed with social distancing in place, while still having a green purpose during a post COVID19 world. The community centre takes inspiration from places that were not closed down during the lockdown period, such as public parks. This highly influenced the design and furniture elements of the cafe’ to limit the chance of this space being closed during future lockdowns.

The Void

The proposed design is located within 501 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley and features a two story community centre that will encourage community socialisation. The ground floor offers a cafe (The Public Park Cafe), Lounging area, indoor garden area which features an appreciation tree artwork, void garden area, outdoor pet friendly garden and herb garden. The void area is a wild, overgrown area with mostly round cover to maximise sunlight and ventilation throughout the space, the outdoor garden is more traditional and maintained featuring seating areas, a sand pit and community herb garden area. The second floor offers a gamers cafe (The Level Up Cafe), gamers lounging area and student study area. All the furniture within the centre has been designed to allow social distancing by incorporating planter boxes between seating; the furniture pieces are fixed to take inspiration from public parks and have been placed in specific layouts to ensure users can interact without talking completely face to face.

Ground Level – Public Park cafe, community garden & herb garden

level one – level up cafe, gamers lounge, student study area

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