The Hub

Commissioned by the Town of Coaldale, the Hub’s initial purpose was to serve the community as an emergency outlet during potential disaster. Beyond this initial utility however, it was also meant to serve the town in providing space for community functions, fitted for small festivities and gatherings. Its strategic proximity to schools, hospital, cenotaph, and main street, allows it to become an effective extension of Coaldale’s public life, as an important contributor to town amenity space. Organized as a division between office space and a public community room, the building’s mass becomes a diagram of our strategy towards program planning. In the taller volume, the building is able to accommodate the public function in which a greater number of building occupants are allowed to gather under one roof. The community room is large and flexible enough to host any number of different events, as diverse as birthday parties to voting stations. Office space inhabits the shorter volume, and is connected to the larger volume by a shared entry. From the outside a monolith formally divides the two architectural volumes, but more importantly, marks the civic character and entry of the building.