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myplace Support Team World class youth centre design

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

Summary

You have the robust business plan, and an in-depth knowledge of the young people you are working with. But how do you recognise what makes a well designed youth centre? Youth centres are pretty special places; with a constantly changing clientele they can be quite complex buildings. Here are ten tested points to recognise a well designed youth centre. These can be used whether you are visiting at a completed centre, looking at one still on paper, or setting out your needs right at the beginning.

How have we come up with these points for good design of youth centres?
This learning is based on structures developed over ten years by the governments advisor on the good design of buildings and places, CABE. This has then been specially adapted for the myplace programme, which has delivered a good number of finished youth centres around the country. Advice in this section has the benefit of wide experience drawn from visiting completed centres across the country, from discussing with experts who advised over dozens of projects for young people, face-to-face conversations with staff and clients, and of course most importantly, hearing the views of young people using completed youth centres.

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

Summary

10 ways to recognise a good youth centre building: 1:


Good relationship to the surroundings

The buildings ethos and identity Sending out the right message Relationship to neighbourhood

2:

Making the best use of the site

Arrangement on site Using space well Getting to and from the entrance

3: A building with a good layout

First impressions Reflecting the use Ease of moving around A welcoming feeling

4: A good-looking, and well made building

Shape and size of building The outside elevations Construction and materials Maintenance and durability

5: A pleasant and functioning interior, with good spaces


Variety and delight High quality Right size for the use Dealing with clutter and storage

6: Good outdoor activity areas (if applicable)


Opportunity for outdoor activity Access from inside

7:

A building that minimises energy use

Orientation to the sun and breezes Daylighting Ventilation Temperature inside Energy use strategies

8: A building that feels both safe and inviting


Feeling of safety Passive management of security Well laid out external and internal environment

9: A building that is flexible, easy to manage and adaptable to


future changes
Day to day flexibility Easy to manage Adaptability Change for expansion or shrinking

10: A building that works overall that comes together so young


people and their community are proud of it
Appropriate Uplifting Sense of belonging Of good quality

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

1: Good relationship to the surroundings

Ethos and identity Sending out the right message Relationship to neighbourhood
What are the issues?
A new building provides a great opportunity to express the ethos of the project: its self-image. The challenge of appealing to young people, an increasingly sophisticated demographic, is to make the architecture sufficiently engaging and communicative. Whilst the development of a new youth centre offers a great opportunity for its potential users, it might also be considered undesirable by some: perceptions of young people congregating en masse are not always positive. So as well as advocating for itself, the building also needs to contribute positively to the wider neighbourhood. It may well need to also serve wider groups in the community in the future. And of course a rigid age banding is quite an artificial way to categorise people; young people may themselves be parents for example. Your youth centre also needs to not be an island it can present a threat to existing facilities, which may be under-resourced and struggling to stay sustainable. A new centre needs to support and expand its neighbourhood, and not duplicate what is there already. Equally, a specialist new centre targeted at a fairly narrow demographic may provoke hostility if other urgent needs are not also being met locally.

How to approach the issues:


Consult well locally to find out what the issues really are. Young people themselves will be an excellent source of inside information so make the most of young peoples expertise on the local context: what else exists, whats popular, where the gaps are, what local perception is, where the territories and tensions are.

Ensure your range of consultees is wide and representative.


Young people can also find each other intimidating. Consult your potential users well, to better understand the issues. Additionally, many young people and particularly more vulnerable young people such as those with disabilities will need parent/carer support to use a facility. This might be permission to attend an event, or physical support to get there. Therefore adults also need to feel confident about their charges using a centre.

Think carefully about the entrance: how it reads and how inviting it is.

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

1: Good relationship to the surroundings

Relationships with neighbours need to be proactively managed.


Some solutions:
Mastermind a local charm offensive, with the young people at its core. Get the local press on side and keep the positive PR flowing. Establish what else is out there locally to add to rather than compete with existing provision. Agree a collective story about how the project should be: the vision (see earlier sections). Use experiential language to capture and express this, and scrutinise the adjectives selected. For example safe may not be the whole story; provocative or surprising may also be in the mix. Celebrate the potential of the new centre with an imaginative design solution which speaks the language of the young people it seeks to attract. This is an opportunity for a more playful response. Perhaps allow the building to be a bit untidy. (Consider the difference between a typical teenage bedroom and an adult one!) Include surprising elements that reinforce this overall ambition: signage in the external floorscape that wraps up over the faade; shop window elements which might be digital displays to project interior activity onto the exterior and showcase a changing programme of events; lighting that changes the ambience of a place after dark.

A joint effort:

We did a lot of work with neighbours constant consultation almost more with them than with the young people.
Director of a completed youth centre

Building a brand:

What I really love are the LEDs on the outside ... the whole place lights up for miles around ... I think its a really beautiful building.
Young person user

Think how different types of user will approach the building.

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

1: Good relationship to the surroundings

Consider some rolling personalisation of the external faade: the cohort of local young people using the centre will naturally refresh itself within five years and the building needs to stay relevant and theirs. Keep the brief broad enough to accommodate facilities for the wider community if possible. This may include public realm opportunities (such as a plaza, play space or skate park outside the building) or scope for shared-use rooms within the building itself.

Foster mutually beneficial relationships with other local facilities but be mindful of the implications of any such allegiances. If sharing a site for economy or critical mass, ensure the project retains its own identity. Adjacency with a school or college offers an instant catchment of potential users but may inhibit young people who associate with education negatively, or appear territorial if theres more than one school in the area. Design the site and building to project its autonomy in such circumstances, for example using a separate entrance approach and avoiding the corporate signage and livery.

An evolving brief:

We have senior lunches, computer courses ... and we try to expand it all the time to different parts of the community, so ... the people who come in for the lunch bring their grand-kids for other things. Anyone can walk in and use the cafe ...
Centre manager

Use the building layout to create enticing views to the centres activities.

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

2: Making the best use of the site

Arrangement on site Using space well Getting to and from the entrance
What are the issues?
Generally, young people do not drive, but may well cycle, skate, use public transport or be dropped off at a venue, as well as walk. The building should reflect this; if it is situated behind a big car park somethings gone wrong! The requirements for entrance to the building are crucial to making the project work well. Hanging out is an intrinsic part of the young peoples experience. You also want your centre to avoid threshold fear. It is desirable that users feel able to appropriate the space outside the building as much as the building itself. Along with this, the security issues around single or multiple entrances need very careful consideration. Potential out-of-hours arrangements need to be resolved. Is the whole building always open, or are there evening events when a separate side door entrance would be appropriate?

How do you approach the building?

How to approach the issues:


Map the local area with your young peoples representatives. Young peoples informal routes to and through the site may be surprising, and different from the formal car-dominated street patterns. The entrance should be clear or the site will feel intimidating. A single point of entry for all building users appears democratic, but may inhibit less confident users who might prefer to slide in discreetly. Transparency at the entrance further alleviates threshold fear. Can you see the back door from the front door? As glimpsed from the outside, does the interior appear inviting, fun, non-intimidating?

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

2: Making the best use of the site

Are young people under 16 in loco-parentis on the property? Is it necessary always to record whos present, or can there be transitional spaces which are open access? Consider the potential concerns of an unfamiliar user. The opportunity to slide in and out of a setting quietly, without formal sign-in, allows more tentative visitors the opportunity to test the provision before fully committing. The accommodation may be zoned for reduced out-ofhours use so that the whole building does not necessarily need to be on simultaneously. Similarly, different parts of the building may benefit from independent entrances, such as a separate side door entrance to the gig venue for autonomy.

Aim to avoid threshold fear.

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

2: Making the best use of the site

Some solutions:
Offer attractive external spaces as shared public realm.Use parts of the front facade to advertise whats going on within the building, such as artworks, projected images, a dramatic climbing wall. Make some of the interior spaces highly visible from the outside, and consider having transitional spaces that everyone can use such as a coffee bar at the entrance. If there needs to be a formal signing-in procedure, consider positioning this beyond the shared realm, so that people can try before they buy.

Reacting to context:

The building fits in well with the surrounding industrial park buildings but without negative industrial tin shed associations. Its a simple rectangle, has black engineering bricks at ground-floor level, giving a tough, grounded and secure semi-industrial feel, whereas the translucent upper levels with LEDs make the upper storey shine like a beacon at night, betraying its status as something else entirely.
First time visitor to a new youth centre.

The entrance should be clearly articulated to increase user confidence. A canopy, glazed screen, hierarchy of door size, and super-graphics can all be used to reinforce where to go. The architecture should communicate this; reliance on graphics alone indicates a failure of the design. Consider too that not everybody reads, or reads the same language. Use the building and site arrangements to mitigate against the real or imagined fear of what lies beyond. Identify activities which can be used as a positive showcase to the outside world, and locate these to best advantage as an advert for the project. Consider how far the general public can be invited into or through the building and site without compromising security. If multiple entrances or a different evening arrangement apply, make sure it is clear which door serves which activity. Lighting and imaginatively designed shutters can express daytime and evening ambience and be used to shut down parts of the centre after dark, and indicate the alternative ways in.

Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

3: A building with a good layout

First impressions Reflecting the use Ease of moving around A welcoming feeling
What are the issues?
The layout of the building should help its use, not hinder it. Of course, a youth centre isnt a hospital, where you need to find the X-ray department. Yet if you are not careful, a layout that needs to be peppered with signs is a surefire way to set an institutional tone. Getting the layout right for all situations can get pretty complex, with the multiple uses that a youth centre might have in one day (a few people dropping by, after school rush, a ticket-only event). It is all well and good having the aspiration to encourage both hanging out and activity, but the only way this will happen is if the layout of your building makes it possible and natural.

How to approach the issues:


With this kind of topic, its best to ask questions such as: is the building easy to read, meaning easy to find your way around? Are there choices of routes throughout the building? Is it clear that this is a building for young people the moment you step inside? Can young people stamp their identity on it, not just by their presence and activity? It is also worth working through a series of scenarios, looking directly at the plans: If someone arrives in crisis can he/she be dealt with discreetly? How do the pattern and scale of use throughout the day or week get handled? How would the space handle a fight breaking out? Users should be able to circulate through the building without disturbing other users, so plan the layout so that you dont have to circulate through one room to get to another, or to get to support facilities such as toilets. Remember there is a balance to be struck. Circulation spaces that are all open (for example, over two floors with balconies) mean that if one area has a boisterous group in, a much bigger area has no choice but to take on that atmosphere.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

3: A building with a good layout

Some solutions:
Allow freedom of movement throughout the building, as this will engender ownership of the place, and therefore belonging. But provide a clear message that there are people there to help orientation. The routes should be populated and/or overlooked. Place the staff areas centrally and strategically. See circulation as a series of continuous usable spaces, not corridors: cafes, break-out spaces, climbing walls, social areas. Circulation should not have any hidden corners, hiding places or dead-ends. Encourage visitors to catch enticing glimpses of other activities in the centre as they circulate through it. This might encourage them to try something new on their next visit. First impressions last:

The reception is easy to find and informal, immediately to one side within a doubleheight open space. The glass-fronted climbing wall really announces the dynamic feel of the place. The reception is more like a help-desk than a defensive space through which you have to pass to get in. This seems to work very well people coming into the building were using it, and not just cruising past.
A first time visitor to a centre

The offerings of the centre should be on display, by designing a permeable, highly visible, and welcoming entrance, with clear lines of sight to the main functions, and unimpeded desire lines from the reception or foyer. There is nothing better for planning entrances than visiting a centre, and consciously thinking and seeing whether its layout works. If it does, analyse how it does it, and copy it! If a visitor has a particular end destination in mind, is it clear where he/she is to go? If a visitor has no end destination in mind is it ok just to hang out? Is there someone to offer help to an unfamiliar visitor on arrival? Are the toilets obvious without having to ask? Reception is crucial to setting the tone of the centre.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

3: A building with a good layout

Most spaces but not all can have multiple uses.

Make certain that the circulation can cater for 10 or 100 people, depending on use. All circulation should be well-lit (ideally with natural daylight) with an ambience appropriate to function and location. Place the more active and public areas close to the front entrance and the street, and perhaps the more private and sensitive uses (eg recording studios and IT equipment) slightly away from the street. Marking the change at a threshold like a change of floor finish can help differentiate varying space types and uses. If signage is used make certain that its designed to be actively welcoming rather than prohibitive. Avoid signs that give out a barrage of rules such as no smoking, no skateboards, do not chain bicycles to the railings. For a sensitive teenager all that sends out is institution.

Avoid signs like You are now on CCTV. Instead, use more passive means of security, such as placing the centre managers office close to the entrance and reception, with views out to the street and into the foyer, and strategically placed glazed doors and walls from within activity areas so that the users help survey their own place throughout the centre. So, if a disturbance breaks out, it can be collaboratively managed and contained.

Intentions and realities:

The buzz-in system was something we wanted from the start so we can control the numbers in that area ... but we cant see people standing by the door ... because that wall is in the way.
Reception staff at newly opened centre

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

4: A good-looking, and well-made building

Shape and size of building The outside elevations Construction and materials Maintenance and durability
What are the issues?
Buildings cost a lot of money, and over the past century we have got into a habit of making buildings that get demolished within thirty years. We cant really carry on like that its wasteful and costly. The issue is even more difficult for a building such as a youth centre, the turnover of young people is by definition fast, so making a building good looking in the eyes of a few peoples opinions can be dangerous. Of course another aspect of how a building is made is: does it fit in? Does it make sense in its area? A youth centre in a light industrial area should be built of materials quite different from one in an established residential area. Buildings dont always have to shout look at me! on their outside materials.

How to approach the issues:


The biggest challenge is to answer both these questions: Does the building feel like a positive advert for young people? And, is the form and scale of the building sensitive to and engaged with the neighbouring area? You and your design team should analyse existing physical constraints: setbacks, heights of surrounding buildings, building types of the neighbourhood. Are there any over-looking issues, rights of light issues, acoustic etc which might influence its form and the way it sits, or fits into the immediate context?

Transparency at the entrance needs to be carefully balanced with security.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

4: A good-looking, and well-made building

Does the building excite and delight and stretch imagination, as well as satisfy functional requirements? One of the hardest things to deal with for youth centres is association: think about whether it looks like any other institutional building, like a health centre or a school. Think about ways to allow the building to remain contemporary and meaningful over time, in order to continue to attract and be relevant to teenagers and the wider community in the future too. Remember bright colours and jazzy shapes might be some peoples idea of exciting and youthful today, but may well not be in five years time. Think about the long term maintenance of building materials. Children and young adults can be tough on buildings so materials need to be robust and long lasting. Youth centres should be designed to minimise maintenance and, where regular maintenance and replacement are required, the design should ensure that this can be carried out with minimum disruption and cost.

Finishes need to be both robust and attractive.

The right materials, the right atmosphere:

Some solutions:
The key to this is to give your design team the challenge, and then test whether you think they have solved it. Avoid being vague. Saying I want it to be exciting is too general, and you might get a whole lot of very un-funky solutions. So ask more leading questions, such as: are there opportunities for young people to stamp their identity on the place, and for that to be updated and renewed? Is the building, its fabric choice or materiality, suitably robust to withstand heavy and creative use? Sometimes buildings that are more like warehouses than designer apartments are better at standing the test of time and fashion.

The skate park is obviously very popular (it was full of excited kids coming and going when I walked in). The choice of ply panels and polycarbonate windows manages to be tough but warm, which it might not have been if the materials had been more obviously industrial, such as aluminium panelling or crinkly tin.
A first time visitor

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

4: A good-looking, and well-made building

Realities of maintenance:

I love the appearance of the floors - they look amazing when theyre clean! But as the staff are also the cleaners, it does not get the cleaning attention that it needs, its already trashed.
Staff in a centre

Details are important.

Research into the history of what buildings are made of in the area, and compose the building as a response to this history, to add richness to the neighbourhood. Some have found branding and the building work very well together for youth centres using sculpture, lighting features and other ideas as a beacon of delight can go a long way to capture the imagination of the community, and input something surprising, memorable and long lasting. However, beware of the issue of permanence. More short term displays and exhibits of art or graphics always capturing the ever-changing mood of contemporary teenage culture - can be great for this building type, and just as powerful. This doesnt have to be an expensive technical solution like an electronic graffiti wall. Establish the areas most vulnerable to wear and tear and then you can work out where robust materials/finishes will be required. A wise move is to make sure building materials in such places are chosen for their easy maintenance without specialist input, and that replacement materials can be readily sourced and matched if required.

Research into the sourcing and use of local materials within fifty miles if possible. Choose low-embodied energy materials (in production and freighting distances to site), to support the sustainability agenda. Choose materials on the basis of being creative and non-corporate, and avoiding clich. This can be an issue with youth centres. Are the name and the graphics for the centre appropriate, and can these change over time? Put robust and special materials as a priority early on in the cost plan. These things can have a habit of changing when budgets get under stress, yet could really jeopardise the quality of your project. In some circumstances it might be an idea to design a building so the skin (or cladding) of the building can be replaced after the lifetime of a material (which could be something like 25 years), without affecting the permanent structural frame.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

5: A pleasant and functioning interior, with good spaces

Variety and delight High quality Right size for the use Dealing with clutter and storage
What are the issues?
We need spaces to do all sorts of things in a youth centre. You will no doubt be very clear of the specific activities you may be offering, along with multi-use, less defined spaces. We have extensive technical advice for specific activities, such as climbing walls, within this guide. Clearly a recording studio cant have too many other uses. But many other spaces can. The key to making a quality youth centre is to make these spaces come together not as a jumble, but to make sense, and to design built-in flexibility as much as possible, without compromising on specific needs. Often the issue with spaces not working well is how they relate to what are called ancillary spaces that support the different uses storage, break-out areas, toilets, and kitchenette provision. Controllability is another issue: good daylight, but also blackout, and/or a variety of task and ambient lighting configurations to suit different activities at different times of day. And of course: noise! With youth centres, acoustics can be a real issue, both within the building and to neighbours.

Youth centres need very flexible spaces.

How to approach the issues:


You really need to think about how the spaces need to function. If you have something already, the answer isnt necessarily how it functions currently. Design for the primary function for each of the spaces. Then consider all other secondary or future activities that could happen within the space. Youll also need to have a design that is suitably loose fit, allowing for uses not yet imagined, as well as the initially defined brief. Are there opportunities for subsequent enterprise and serendipity?

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

5: A pleasant and functioning interior, with good spaces

Changing rooms:

The young people had to learn how to use the chill-out room ... Its a space they said they wanted, but as soon as they had it, they were all jumping and running around. Then they pulled together a list of expectations and wrote them up (now on a notice on the wall) so they now agree what the space should be for.
Centre manager

Much to do with flexibility is to do with control what controls the internal environment temperature, humidity, and air movement? Daylight, suncontrol, and potential glare can make certain activities such as reading computer screens very hard, yet you dont want to create a windowless cell. Thats where arranging rooms in relation to building orientation comes in. Are these automatically controlled, or can they be over-ridden by the occupants by easy manual operation? If so does it all reset? Remember, a caretaker or facilities manager may be a luxury in the future. Then think through the kind of noise issues within rooms, and outdoors. Are there confidential spaces? Practise rooms? Many noise issues can be dealt with by laying out the spaces well, rather than very costly acoustic treatments.

Some solutions:
Do space-planning optioneering exercises and test for all current, eventual and imaginary outcomes. Try to characterise the spaces too: big/small, noisy/quiet, light/dark, messy/clean, structured/improvised. This will help you get the right kind of space for the activity. Provide storage places configured evenly across the centre, correctly proportioned. Often the first thing people say they want to change about a building is the storage space. Do space-planning exercises to establish optimum sizes for storage rooms and cupboards.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

5: A pleasant and functioning interior, with good spaces

Testing needs:

We built a building three times as large as the previous one, with much more storage and still its full! How does that work?!
Client for a completed youth centre

Design to provide natural lighting wherever possible.

Distributing support spaces (say, for example, tea points) evenly throughout a centre might be a good way to make the place intimate. In other circumstances, this function may need to be centralised for better management control. You need to decide what is best. Plumbing and drainage provision is one of the most expensive and disruptive things to alter in a building. If you are not sure whether your toilets need to cater for 10 or 100 people, you can position them near space they can easily expand into, for future needs.

Think of spaces working autonomously as well as in conjunction with each other, so that users are encouraged to crossfertilise, but dont disturb one anothers different activity. A frequent addition to buildings over the past years has been folding walls beware these arent always a good idea. They are costly, people can break them, and its surprising how little they can get used once in place. Spaces can feel completely different and uplifting with higher ceilings, or more volume. Use lighting creatively: consider the connectivity between spaces and the connections real and visual to the outside world, and to the sky.

Say, for example, you have identified noise issues with neighbours with your gig space: a layout that uses spaces that are quieter (offices or toilets) as a buffer might save you thousands in specialist and technical design and detailing. The trick is to do this without compromising on natural ventilation. A great way to make all of this come to life as a part of your project is to involve young people with building management cleaning, repairs, catering, servicing, gardening but you need to make sure the place is designed to be manageable when the first enthusiasts move on!

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

6: Good outdoor activity areas

Some outdoors spaces suit enclosure; others are great adverts for the centre.

Opportunity for outdoor activity Access from inside


What are the issues?
Outdoor space is an opportunity. Outdoors offers a less-constrained environment than indoors. It allows us all the pleasures of feeling sun on our faces and breathing fresh air. Many activities for young people naturally suit external space: structured and unstructured sports and games, play, performance, social gathering, al-fresco eating. Activity outdoors can be a positive advert for the centre, and can benefit the wider community if attractive space and facilities are made available for public use. However, outdoor activity may also present a real or perceived nuisance to the neighbourhood, so this needs to be carefully planned and managed.

How to approach the issues:


If the site permits it, include outdoor space in the brief. All sorts of activity benefits from being held outside, and not just structured sports or games. Consider meetings under the canopy, counselling in the tree-house, lunch on the grass, performances on the steps Decide whether an activity suits a public aspect and can be a positive advert for the centre (the front garden analogy) or needs to be kept more private (ie back garden). Not all outdoor space offers the same potential. Consider orientation to capture sunlight, shelter/shade and views when deciding what goes where. Be aware too of potential disturbance to neighbours, since groups of young people congregating outdoors inevitably generate noise. Outdoor space can also be a beneficial resource for activity inside the building, bringing daylight and views into the interior.

Some solutions:
Provide external spaces as part of the brief if the site allows it. Include front garden space to the street to contribute to the public realm. Include also more private back garden space for less public activity. The latter might be to the rear of the site, or contained within the development as a courtyard, or elevated onto a roof terrace. Depending on security strategy, access to an external space may need to be controlled by entry through the building, even if the space is fronting the street. Alternatively, open-access space in the public realm is a chance for centre users and non-users to cross-fertilise.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

6: Good outdoor activity areas

Not all young people will want to be active participants. Encourage non-participating young people or the wider community to spectate. Provide non-specific external furniture, such as benches, low walls and steps, to act as informal seating to support this. Be imaginative about the potential of your outdoor rooms and offer different types of spaces. These might include: paved terraces, gardens, plots for cultivation, sports pitches and play equipment, courtyards and verandas. Design the interface with the building to be appropriately robust to withstand errant footballs/skateboards. Viewpoints: Views from one part of a building to the next encourage young people to try something new next time.

I like the layout ... in some places you can see into the skate park and watch everyone else doing it. I like the balcony, its brilliant.
Young skater

Use internal external adjacencies wisely. Plan internal circulation so that ways out to external space do not disturb other building users. Join up exterior uses up with the interior ones, such as an indoor/outdoor climbing wall, indoor/outdoor caf space. Ensure users can nip in-and-out easily for support facilities such as toilets without having to negotiate formal signing-in procedures. Natural overlooking of an external space from a populated part of the buildings interior promotes security. Similarly, the space should look inviting from the interior vantage point. Plan for year-round activity. A through-the-wall servery from a kitchen or coffee bar supports summer ice-cream sales and hot chocolate on bonfire night equally. External lighting can extend the hours of usage and also help mitigate anti-social-behaviour and personal safety concerns.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

7: A building that minimises energy use

Orientation to the sun and breezes Daylighting Ventilation Temperature inside Energy use strategies
What are the issues?
All new and refurbished/remodelled buildings must reduce carbon use, both embodied energy in the construction process, and energy in use. Youth centres should be no exception to this. In fact, youth centres should be energy saving exemplars, setting the standards for future building projects and in themselves be a part of the environmental education process. Youth centres must aim to exceed current Building Regulations, possibly with an aim to achieving Passivhaus standards. Young people should be advocates of energy conservation and these buildings should promote this. After all, young people will be inheriting the legacy of today!

How to approach the issue:


This is not an easy topic to deal with. It needs effort, time, and technical advice. Start by analysing the site, as energy minimisation starts with maximising the opportunities of the site. Is the site in an area of high pollution air quality, noise these may impact on ability to maximise daylight and natural ventilation? Will acoustic requirements compromise this strategy (both noise in and noise out)? Analyse your brief and requirements. This means: Is the building the right size re-visit and re-prove the brief if necessary. With the end users, prepare a timetable of rooms/spaces and uses. Do the rooms have specific environmental requirements eg recording studios, performance spaces? Will they be predominantly used in daytime or night time or both? Can the services (such as lighting) in spaces be zoned to minimise servicing when other areas are not being used?

Think about energy use in all spaces.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

7: A building that minimises energy use

Expectations and energy:

There is cold water only in the downstairs toilets ... because the heating is from a woodpellet fired boiler and we didnt want to run the boiler all summer long, the hot water heater is small, for the kitchen and upstairs toilets only ... the kids dont seem to care. No one has ever commented on it.
Centre manager The tricky bit with sustainability can be dealing with conflicts with other issues. For example, night time cooling is a good strategy. However, think about the security implications if this requires windows (even at high level) to be opened at night. So often these two things arent thought about together, meaning the resulting building doesnt work: it has bars on the windows, it overheats, or costs a fortune to run. Then, let the building do the work. Think about the building footprint and the ratio between volume and external envelope. A compact external envelope with the correct orientation will be more energy efficient. Passive measures like those described here are far more effective than reactive green bolt-ons. Keep it simple. Subsequently think about heating/ cooling and solar provision (photovoltaic or solar thermal) are the ground conditions appropriate for ground source heating/cooling?

Some solutions:
Positioning on the site is absolutely key. So, you and your design team need to make sure the orientation is right, ideally maximising north/ south orientation. Think about the topography of the site flat or sloping prevailing winds and sun path surrounding buildings, trees height, shadows wind breaks all these must impact on the design of the building to maximise free daylight and ventilation and minimise overheating, solar gain and glare. Even with existing buildings and sites, where you chose to put spaces within that situation should be governed by these issues.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

7: A building that minimises energy use

In terms of the sustainability performance of your building, it is not enough to say it has to be sustainable. Here, in a few paragraphs, is how you can be both specific, and detailed. The building envelope (or outside walls) should exceed current building regulations for thermal insulation the Passivhaus standard may not always be achievable. However, targets should, as a minimum, be: roof wall floor windows 0.15 W/m2.k 0.25 W/m2.k 0.20 W/m2.k 1.40 W/m2.k Passivhaus Passivhaus Passivhaus Passivhaus 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.80

Careful design detailing (and subsequent construction) should ensure an airtightness of 2 m3/h.m2@50pa. Your design team should be working to design out cold bridges, design in thermal breaks, to keep heat in and cold out in the winter, the opposite in summer. This needs time and skill to do to modern standards. Think about the choice of construction materials ideally specify materials with a low embodied energy and low carbon footprint local timber rather than imported steel for instance. Think about how healthy the materials are many building materials are bi-products of the petrochemical industry and over the course of their lifetime may give off gas (usually more so immediately after installation).

A skilled design team will work with the client to incorporate simple and intuitive controls into the design. But how this is managed is the clients issue how much is automated and how much is occupant control? Clients need to think carefully about the choice of furniture, fixtures and fittings. Ill considered specification or selection may have a drastic effect on the designed building energy calculations. For example, a youth centre may have a requirement for a great kitchen, but a commercial/semi-commercial kitchen, if not carefully researched and specified, can result in energy inefficient equipment permanently set in the building, often equipment that is unnecessary and remains unused. Finally, think about the handover and commissioning process of the building. One of the main reasons for high energy use in buildings is that the building users and operators do not understand, or have not been fully briefed/inducted into how to use the building and the controls. With your youth centre, you need to have designed it to be as easy to use as possible, which is much easier said than done. Natural ventilation is important in youth centres.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

8: A building that feels both safe and inviting

Well laid out external environment Feeling of safety Well laid out internal environment Passive management of security
What are the issues?
Youth centres by their name, to many people, have a negative perception they are often seen as unwelcome neighbours. Accordingly through design and a robust consultation process, any new centre has to respond to and address these concerns. Whilst predominantly for young people, in many cases these buildings will in fact need to be multigenerational, providing services and activities across the ages at different times of the day to the local community. Accordingly they need to be both inviting and secure for all users. Of course people arent just about age. What is comfortable for one young person can be very intimidating for another somehow a youth centre needs to appeal to both the shy and the boisterous, from a range of cultural backgrounds.

How to approach the issues:


Our research suggests that where young people have been involved in the briefing and the design development processes they are more likely to take ownership and, accordingly take care and protect their building, and feel pride in it. Think carefully about how different users feel comfortable in different spaces. Along with others, this is one of the keys to creating a building that is safe and secure. The young people should have a responsibility for the security of their building and should be party to the strategies that support this. The key passive measures (such as where staff are, where the main entrance is) should be incorporated into the design development and not added later as an afterthought. The more active measures (such as electronic locks or CCTV) can also be incorporated into the overall security strategy at detail design level. You may well be thinking security is not what your youth centre is about, it should be open access all areas. Designing passive measures for safety and security isnt about lack of trust, it is about pre-empting where there might be problems. Some youth centres built recently had a strategy of complete openness only to find real gang problems in use, at which point it is too late to back track on the layout of the building. So, it is essential that issues are considered at the briefing stage. There is nothing worse in terms of message that your centre could send out than seeing shutters bolted on to windows or external security lighting or CCTV cameras fixed randomly over the elevations clearly as an afterthought.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

8: A building that feels both safe and inviting

Some solutions:
The solutions to this issue are to really examine your design and site as it develops. At every step of the way you need to be sure that making a safe and inviting centre isnt just an aspiration, it is actually going to be delivered. Externally, issues around the building are key. Easy, unintimidating, and easily monitored access to the building is it on a street frontage or across a public space is it supervised/overlooked (either by the centre or neighbours)? Are there any dark/blind corners? Is it well lit at night? Is it shared with a vehicular access accordingly are pedestrians segregated/safe? With the building entrance is it inviting? Is it welcoming? Will it encourage or discourage the curious? Is it the only point of access?

Easy come easy go:

The idea was that the centre was laid out so that it could be run by two people, so that someone on the ground floor can see everything ... its a bit different during half-term, but usually it can be run by a manager and one other person.
A centre manager

Staffing strategy, and sitelines inside


Inside, a lot of this comes down to staffing strategy, and its relation to the layout of the building. Is there a permanently supervised reception area that all building users would have to pass to enter the building will there be a sign-in protocol or membership passes (swipe cards or fobs) or how will people entering the building be recorded? Is it a requirement to have a log of all people in the building at any one time for fire escape purposes? How are the zones within the building secured will there be areas of the building only accessible at certain times of the day? Are the circulation spaces supervised from the reception or overlooked/supervised from other communal areas? Does the plan avoid dead end corridors are there clear sight lines to all circulation routes from communal areas? How are toilets dealt with, often a cause of problems in schools and youth centres. Are they divided by gender or are they unisex? Are the entrances clearly visible from communal areas?

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

8: A building that feels both safe and inviting

Controlling access to some spaces


Some areas within the building may require greater security than others, for instance rooms where there may be expensive equipment computers, recording equipment etc and how are these controlled? Is there an additional layer of security/controlled access for these spaces? How are external activity areas controlled is access only through the building, which may limit out of hours use, or are they semi-public? For instance if there is a MUGA how is it accessed? Is it floodlit at night and are the hours of use stipulated by the planning approval? Will there be CCTV and if so will it be monitored? Is it fixed and is there sufficient light at night for it to be effective? Will it act as a deterrent or will it be seen as a threat? Have the local crime prevention officers been consulted and does the building comply with Secure by Design requirements? Clearly, shutters and bars on external doors and windows should be absolutely avoided if possible. You may think this is an obvious aspiration at the outset, but in some situations, you never know what might happen down the line, caused by your building layout. Methods such as careful positioning of planting and ensuring overlooking, are free when designing a building, and can really make a difference to the long term success of building security. When unavoidable, shutters need to be effective and need to be open during the day to avoid the fortress. Who will open and close them will they be automated can they be afforded?

External security and access needs careful attention to not appear as fortress-like.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

9: A building that is flexible, easy to manage and adaptable to future changes

Day to day flexibility Easy to manage Adaptability Change Expansion or shrinking


What are the issues?
Flexibility and good design go hand in hand. People are motivated to occupy a nice space: if it works, is light, fresh and generally pleasant to be in, people will choose it as an office, meeting space or activity room. Get the basics right and it will be inherently flexible. Youth centres need to be especially clever about being flexible, as in a couple of years time, there is a whole new generation of users.

Some solutions:
Making a space autonomous and accessible Can a space be accessed independently, or directly from a shared reception space, without crossing through other territories? With this you need to consider how the heating works; zoning; location of toilets and catering facilities.

A space that can be personalised Can different occupants easily make the space their own? A common example is the wish to install a shelf/notice board/cupboard, or to redecorate. With this youll need to consider robust and easily changeable wall finishes, such as load-bearing walls behind plaster and paint; sufficient wall space for affixing furniture too much glazing, or all doors and cupboards, will render a space inflexible.

How to approach the issues:


You need to work through the functional considerations for building in flexibility: how the building will get used. This is the kind of issue you can set down in your brief and work with a strong design team on. Beware of interpreting flexibility as having constant options: in reality, users rarely can be bothered to heft massive bits of furniture around, or fold back large partition walls.

Furnishings need to be hard wearing.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

9: A building that is flexible, easy to manage and adaptable to future changes

Pillow fights possible:

Most damage is to do with the soft furnishings ... a mixture of wear and tear and misuse ... kids throwing them about and diving on the foam-filled seating. Its the bean-bags and cushions we chose that have proved to be a nightmare ...
Youth manager at a completed centre

Colour and light can make a building easy to navigate.

Providing an ante-room
Does the space have an associated smaller space? This could be used in a variety of ways, such as for private chats, staff or volunteer time out, confidential phone calls, break-out from bigger meetings, pre-event set up, admin, somewhere to set the coffee out, etc. This also works as the private office or meeting space within a larger open-plan office.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

Providing sufficient and varied storage


Does the space cater for a wide variety of storage needs? Consider individual shelved cupboards for different user groups, lockers. Useful storage will always be wide and shallow. A big furniture store can be great for tables and chairs, and equipment such as a demountable stage. Bear in mind that any furniture clearing is a big job, so try to programme users with similar furniture needs into the same space: tables and chairs occupants in one room; open space occupants in another, if possible.

Flexible furnishings
You might want to consider: A big sink in a lockable cupboard Different lighting configurations, from bright to ambient. All should be VDU compatible Good distribution of sockets perhaps including one in the ceiling - for digital projector or disco ball! Blackout/dim-out blinds Perimeter curtains can be a great way to conveniently change a room from white box to black box Lino or timber rather than carpet its much easier to clean!

The building needs to make people proud.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

10: A building that works overall that comes together so young people and their community are proud of it

Its our place:

The kids are proud we achieved this and will tell anyone whos doing wrong ... obviously they dont want to see other kids trashing it. There is a young persons committee, they have regular meetings my granddaughter chairs it and they give us their views.
A youth centre caretaker

What are the issues?


With so many issues to weigh up, conflicts between needs will soon be clear. The building has to be sustainable socially and financially as well as environmentally and, accordingly, has to be robust and agile enough to change with time and use. Its a challenge to get all of this working. How do we make for an inviting entrance where young people will want to hang out, whilst not upsetting the neighbours? How do we make flexible spaces without providing too much floor area?

How to approach the issues:


While going through the design process you, and your design team, need to be able to zoom into the issue (say, the organisation of deliveries) then zoom back out (to your overall intentions) to check dealing with the practical issue hasnt scuppered the overall vision. Too often, a narrow solution to a practical need in a building has the unintended consequence of killing off some far more important aspiration for the project. So you may have all the spaces exactly the size you need, but if the centre feels completely institutional, then it may well fail to match your original vision.

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

Some solutions:
The key to how it comes together is dialogue, and monitoring your vision is actually coming through in the end result. It is vital at the outset to establish a robust consultation and participation process. The objectives need to be clear and achievable; they may need to be moderated to ensure expectations can be realised and are not fantasy. A successful building ultimately comes from a talented design team working with a robust brief, which is the result of a successful briefing process involving all potential stakeholders. Its not easy weighing up the various demands, but it is rewarding ...

Forget royalty:

When you come in the door you see a list of the kids who opened the place ... it wasnt opened by a celebrity. They point the plaque out to their mates ... and theyll come down in a few years time with their kids and say your mum opened this place.
Caretaker of a newly opened youth centre

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Ten pointers to a well designed youth centre

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