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Donore Avenue Youth and Community Centre

The new Donore Avenue Youth and Community Centre provides a wide range of community facilities to the Donore Parish as well as a base for youth and community service workers. The building is also home to the local community drugs team, offering counselling and support services.

The project sponsor was Brendan Kenny, Assistant City Manager for Dublin City Council, with additional funding provided by the Eastern Regional Health Board, the Local Drugs Task Force Fund, and the Young People's Facilities and Services Fund (YPFSF). The need for this community building was outlined by the Liberties-Coombe Area Plan and the development of the project was guided by a management group representing several local community groups.

The building aims to allow easy communication between the diverse users and to create an open and inclusive atmosphere. The heart of the new centre is a 200m2 community hall for a diverse range of uses. Above the community hall, on the second floor, is an enclosed roof-garden. In addition, various activity rooms are available to local groups and a drop-in centre located at the entrance is the everyday public face of the building.

The exterior construction comprises of a brick solid base at ground floor level with a composite, layered build-up, involving fibre cement and open timber cladding on the two upper levels. The cement-fibre board construction and the bricks echo the slate colour of the adjacent church and rectory.

Henchion-Reuter Architects recently completed a community and sports building in Cabra for Dublin City Council and are currently working on a crèche, housing and youth services centre for South Dublin County Council.

As part of DCC commitment to development of the liberties area HRA developed a compact volume with intricate internal planning to house a variety of programmes aimed at youth at risk in the Donore Parish. The multifunctional main hall acts as an 'atrium' space connecting all functions. Overlooking this is a secret walled roof-garden.
The project aims to give a community useable and adaptable space in which to function a wide and changeable brief. Community activity includes sports, meeting, councilling and events. The project was conceived as a 'house' for the community, where the differing functions may easily communicate within a series of volumetrically interlinked spaces. The buildings presence in its community is signalled using a simple and identifiable external form.