Contemplating and gathering
Community hall
urban neighborhoodrural townIndigenous territorygated communitypark
A neighborhood building for meeting, learning, voting, celebrating and saying goodbye to loved ones. It is usually a large hall with a kitchen, restrooms and storage, run by the community itself.
What it solves
It provides a common roof where neighbors organize, make decisions and get to know each other. In an emergency it can serve as a shelter or a collection center.
Today
Place it facing the plaza or the sports field, with eaves, a veranda and large doors that open so the party can spill outside. Give it cross ventilation, a community kitchen, accessible restrooms and storage for tables and chairs.
Common mistake
Locking it behind bars and padlocks that open only a few times a year, or building it as a block box with uninsulated metal roofing, hot and full of echo.
Tomorrow
It can be a heat refuge in the hottest hours, a tool library or a trade workshop for young and older people. With a shared calendar and maintenance in shifts, the hall is alive every day and not only for celebrations.
Where it comes from
- 1Maneaba Kiribati, living tradition
It is the largest building in each village, with a huge roof of pandanus leaves on coconut timber. It is the basis of local government. The country’s parliament bears its name. - 2Bale banjar Bali, Indonesia, living tradition
Each Balinese neighborhood, called a banjar, has its hall for meetings, ceremonies and cultural activities, where village matters are discussed. - 3Village hall United Kingdom, 1919 to 1929
Most of the more than 10,000 British village halls were built in the decade after the First World War. People vote, dance, put on plays and celebrate weddings there. - 4Costa Rican community development Costa Rica, since 1967
The Community Development Law gave shape to development associations, which maintain multipurpose halls along with plazas and other neighborhood works.
Masters
- Lina Bo Bardi SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil, 1986
She turned an old factory into a center for living together with a community dining hall, library, theater, workshops, a lit fire and a water channel with stones inside the shed. She wanted to keep and expand the community life that already existed there.
Appears in the routes
Sources
See also
Also in Contemplating and gathering
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.