Community center

The Nedarag Guesthouse is a non-profit, community-driven project in a remote yet tourist-friendly Sunni-Baluch village in Baluchestan, Iran. Designed and built by NextOffice in close partnership with residents, it comprises three residential units (five rooms) and a small service block clustered around a shaded central courtyard. This courtyard functions as more than a circulation space—it hosts tourists, serves as a playground for children, and accommodates informal social gatherings, including women’s Chelim (hookah) and men’s Dikki. Drawing on local materials and techniques such as dry-stacked stone, palm-derived elements, and traditional Kapar typology, the project reinterprets vernacular architecture for contemporary... More

Set within the redesigned Henri‑Bourassa Park, the new community pavilion forms the centrepiece of a broader transformation of public space in Montréal‑Nord. The project replaces a modest park facility with a generous, clearly articulated building that offers a visible point of reference for local residents and visitors. Charles Lanteigne Charles Lanteigne The 1,000‑square‑meter pavilion is built primarily in structural timber and organized around flexible community rooms that can host workshops, meetings, cultural events and neighbourhood celebrations. These rooms open toward the park and are supported by a series of services for everyday users, such as washrooms, storage areas and informal gathering spaces. Offices and c... More

This project focuses on the rehabilitation of the former Sacré-Cœur retirement home in Comines-Warneton into a multipurpose space. The proposal addresses award criteria, materials, technical aspects, and architectural plans. A thorough analysis of the site and the former hospice highlighted several key challenges: preserving and enhancing heritage features, providing a generous and accessible public facility, increasing the openness between the street and the rear courtyard to create a welcoming and open space, and integrating harmoniously into the surrounding residential fabric. To meet these goals, the two side wings of the former hospice, the chapel, and the barn will be preserved and renovated. The project aims to make the... More

The Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center in Tompkinsville Staten Island is a 65,000 square foot recreation and community center that replaces the former Cromwell Recreation Center demolished during Hurricane Sandy. The Center is a fully accessible, welcoming, and resilient public facility that responds to the needs of its community and represents the best traditions of public architecture. The building’s concept, a garden of wellness, a place of physical, mental, and spiritual rejuvenation, is inspired by Tompkinsville’s historical significance as the ‘watering hole’ of New York – the place where weary travels entering and exiting New York Harbor would rest and collect fresh water for their arduous journey across... More

MAD was retained to design the PPFA headquarters in the heart of downtown Manhattan. The design uses an open workplace model that concentrates the meeting areas near the center of the plans in order to allow for maximum natural light into the floor plate and situates shared facilities conveniently for all departments. The design features a mid-floor reception area on the main floor that serves as the entry point for visitors and staff. A central stair acts as a visual and physical connector between common areas, such as the pantries, which serve as social condensers - encouraging informal interactions between staff and their guests. https://www.mad-nyc.com/projects/planned-parenthood-federation-of-america https://www.mad-nyc.com/pro... More

Queens Community House (QCH) is a multi-site, multi-service non-profit that serves many diverse Queens neighborhoods. Their core programs are housed at the Forest Hills Community Center located at the center of the Kew Gardens neighborhood in a building that is outdated and in need of redefinition. Initializing a redesign of the 19,000sf ( + 7,000sf access/garden) center, MAD developed the building which will receive an improved layout complemented by new infrastructure, an ADA elevator and complete upgrades to its exterior envelope and surrounding areas. https://www.mad-nyc.com/projects/queens-community-house New exterior elements and revised building openings will now allow the organization’s mission to be more deliberately vi... More

Located in the Longquan Mountain, 40 kilometers from Chengdu city, the visitor center serves a dual purpose, catering to both tourists and local villagers by offering public spaces. Two main volumes are situated on the sloping site: the lower one is elevated to create an entrance, guiding visitors into a terraced square covered with wood and greenery. The upper volume, positioned at the top, functions as a cafeteria, retail space, exhibition area, and includes a small library on the second floor.  Atelier LI Atelier LI A ramp system is installed on the site to connect the two volumes and address the height difference, enhancing the sense of surrounding. This design fosters the creation of a cohesive interior and exterior pub... More

Sesame River Park, located in the suburb of Nanjing, serves as a vital green open space for the surrounding community. To enhance everyday life and offer a communal gathering spot, this small white building stands out uniquely among other service facilities. Atelier LI A geometric arrangement of irregular quadrilaterals and triangles can be derived from the park's context where the community center is situated, shaping the building's fundamental form. It rises organically from the landscape, emerging at the edge of the entrance square by the riverbank. The building envelops the square with sloping greenery, defining its spatial impression and dynamic ambiance. The park's landscape will be renovated with a unified geometric design.... More

Situated on the southern bank of the Li Village River in Qingdao, a coastal city in northeastern China, the community library is a compact complex designed with simple geometric volumes. It houses various facilities, including a reading room, reception hall, observation tower, and public restrooms, while also featuring a circulation system that links different levels of the park. The design draws inspiration from the "folie" concept of Parc de la Villette, a modern approach to creating small landscape structures that allows for greater flexibility in form.  Atelier LI Atelier LI The architectural game of volumes offers a dramatic experience as visitors navigate the park in the horizontal and vertical direction. The cubic pav... More

It was autumn when the site of council hall of Shenhui community was enclosure demarcated.  As a residential community built in Shanghai in the early 1990s, it is the same as others of its time: multi-storey buildings, limited parking area, and lacking of public space. The one difference is that this one, is quite small. Its basic appearance can be seen at the intersection of Ruijin South Road and Quxi Road, containing 4 residential buildings with a total of 96 apartments. Shenhui community has gradually formed a self-management mode dominated by the residential committee and each building groups without property management companies involved, thus each project is decided and implemented by residents themselves. Liang Shan Lia... More

The Dalinggen Village Tea House, designed by Studio RE+N and honored with an Architizer A+ Award Special Mention in the Unbuilt Commercial category, is set to complete construction around June 2025. This 200-square-meter cultural and community hub is nestled in the Organic Tea Valley Park of Songyang County, Zhejiang Province. The project creatively repurposes a former signal tower and mechanical room into a lively center for cultural engagement, while preserving the tower’s functionality and celebrating the area’s longstanding tea heritage. Studio RE+N Studio RE+N Studio RE+N Arriving from the southwest, visitors are welcomed into a reception area reached by a winding, ascending path that mirrors the strolls of... More

ENTROPIC in collaboration with studio4SPACE & ARUP Polska has unveiled a proposal for a Leisure and Sport Infrastructure redesign in the city of Warsaw.  The reconstruction project of the existing athletics stadium intricately combines functionality with aesthetic innovation, aiming to transform the space into a more integrated part of the urban and natural landscape. This ambitious redesign not only revitalizes the stadium but also enhances accessibility and community engagement. Caption Visitors can now access the stadium through traditional entrances and a new elevated public path. This path, which runs along the stadium's crown, offers a scenic route that directly connects to the city, weaving through the park surroundin... More