watch this space - the posters

As a kick-off to the publication of the 6 week long live project at The Spires Community Centre, an intial series of 4 posters have been displayed on and around the site.

The primary aim of these posters is to raise local awareness of the live project taking place at The Spires Community Centre.

The nature of the direction of the project is such that there isn't a linear train of thought or purpose to it; but on the contrary a multi-directional, multi-purposed goal.

This introductory poster (labelled 01 bottom right hand corner) reading "something is happpening" suggests that there are a lot of questions to be asked... What is happening?... where, when how, who's involved?

It has been produced and displayed in the hope that it will draw some attention and trigger some thoughts, about what we are trying to do, but also what people would like us to do? We deliberately kept the poster ambiguous to avoid constraining the project at an early stage.

Ultimately, we want to get as many people involved with the centre as possible; through publications, events and participation of the community in any physical building work that may take place.


One of the main aims of the project is to build up a greater number of attendees to The Spires Centre; young and old from all walks of life.

One of the problems identified is the aesthetic of the building itself. From the outside it is a very defensive, inward looking building with exposed harsh dull-grey breeze blocks. This aesthetic is far from inviting; in fact its almost fortress-like, and stands as a clear barrier between the beautiful, cosy, friendly environment within and the newcomer.

The statement "its timber inside" is aimed at getting potential newcomers to breakdown their thoughts of the external appearance being reflected inside - Its warm and inviting.

A large part of the project is to get more people from the surrounding community and beyond to want to check out the centre, What would make you want to visit? a new aesthetic may be part of a solution, or perhaps a landmark, a play/cafe or other facility... Please comment on your thoughts.


A rather striking statistic makes of the statement on another of the three posters in series two (labelled 02 bottom right hand corner), "15,000 people, 13 hexagonal buildings." This draws on the fact that The Spires Centre (in the form of 13 hexagonal buildings) is one very few community centres serving the 15,000 people in Arbourthorne have to go to; despite this the number of centre members is much lower than it should be...why?

Why don't more people come? What could get more people in?
What would you change to get more people involved with the centre? Help us give The Spires a physical identity!


One of the most basic, but most significant problems the centre has is the confusion of entering the centre, and we ask this question on this poster, "where is the entrance?" Currently, any newcomer, including myself will have to find a gap in the tall mesh fence off to one side, then feel their way around from the road facade of the building round to the rear of the building to enter into the bowls of the building away from sight. The poster also addresses the issue of introductions to the activities/services, how did you find out about it, word of mouth? The question makes people think about the first time coming to the centre, asking this to both regular users and apprehensive locals who don't, as yet, use the Spires.

One of the main objectives is to physically announce the entrance, be it through signage, landscaping, a purposeful function or by some other means. We want to know how you'd like the entrance to be?

The content of the posters will continue to evolve as we ask more questions and focus on the requirements, and receive feedback from our consultations in Arbourthorne... Keep your eyes peeled!