Architecture Papers of the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU (Nov 2020)
Community architecture
Abstract
“Active citizenship in the community sector in Slovakia and the Czech Republic has been developing with an ever-increasing intensity. People are gathering more frequently based on their common interests; the number of communities of interest is growing and they are becoming more active.” (Pauliniová, 2018) I perceive the negative impact on people of the digitized world and social media oversaturation as a reason for the increasing number of neighboring communities and various civic associations. Architecture internationally responds promptly to the needs of active communities. There is an increased demand for facilities that reflect the community’s needs and “provide space for people who have similar interests, but often differ as to their social, age, religious, and political backgrounds, who come to play, to learn to work together for personal satisfaction and/or community improvements”. (Yasmin, Parvin, 2018) New community centers have acquired an important role in community development. Their design for program fulfillment, ecology, and inclusivity are creating an image of the community they serve. Community architecture provides a broad scope waiting to be researched; especially in Slovakia, this type of architecture is still an unexplored phenomenon. There is a scarcity of information from community architecture theory and its implementation in practice. This paper elaborates on the design concept of community centers.
