Teenage Parents Project
The Teenage Parents Project is a fantastic organisation offering a range of support services to some of the city’s youngest families. Following an appearance on Channel 4’s ‘The Secret Millionaire’ the organisation has been expanding its capacity and brought us in to look at options for extending their existing premises.
The original building was built as a community centre in the late twentieth century and whilst in generally good condition was becoming cramped and was in need of some brightening up to reflect the spirit and aspiration of this wonderful project.
After consultations with both users and staff we developed a design to create a new accommodation wing that would provide much needed additional activity space, whilst also enclosing an open area to the rear of the building and allowing the creation of a secure courtyard garden to be used as a hugely valuable outdoor play area. In addition a rationalisation of the internal layout, combined with a further small extension, will provide significant additional capacity within the crèche area and allow the project to substantially increase the number of children the facility can accept.
Throughout the design we’ve brightened the building up by bringing in large, bold blocks of colour and then linked the new activity space back to the original building with a glazed corridor that features a virtual rainbow of coloured glass panels, allowing both adults and children to look out at their environment through rose tinted glass . . . or a range of other colours. In addition the new structure itself will include a playful reference to children’s building blocks with the organisation’s ‘TPP’ initials being imprinted on the rendered facade as a way to celebrate building’s function whilst also acting as bright new signage for the project.
With the planning permission now secured and progress being made towards the start of construction we hope that soon, with the addition of these fun and bright new spaces, this fantastic organisation will be welcoming even more young families through its doors.