Retrofit Meets: Creating Community Hubs

Retrofit Meets is an in person series of panel events bringing together experts in the built environment. These are held in the seminar suites of the Building Centre.
Organised thematically, panellists discuss their latest research and completed or ongoing projects, some of which are displayed in the Retrofit 24 exhibition. These discussions present the aims, challenges and outcomes of each project. 
Chaired by Natalie Thomson of Buckley Gray Yeoman, this session brings together four architects who have all recently completed or are currently working on a retrofit project with the aim of creating a community hub.
Natalie is joined by Sarah Robinson of The King’s Foundation who tasked Oxford Brookes University students with finding new uses for a disused hospital in Lancashire and Anthony Staples of RCKa, who is undertaking the retrofit of a youth centre in East London. Also joining the panel is Tara Gbolade of Gbolade Design Studio| Architects and John Puttick of John Puttick Associates. Tara is currently working on the redevelopment of The Dominoes Club in Brixton and The Music Box, a converted church, and John has recently turned a listed maltings into a centre for young people. In conjunction with the charity OnSide, he is delivering several youth centres across the UK.
The panellists’ work with charities, councils and universities is proof of their commitment to including the public in the built environment and ensuring that architecture serves the communities it is built for.