Westminster Piazza Centre for the Homeless

At the time of the Cathedral’s construction two distinctive grids existed at odds with each other. The Cathedral clearly belonging to the grain of the residential buildings that surrounded it. Today, whilst the two grids still exist they now collide at the point of the Piazza which was constructed in the 1970s. This is accentuated further by the 2004 addition of the off axis, axial connection of Cardinal Place.

Two characters exist across the site, the community of the Cathedral and residential buildings and the commerce of Victoria Street. The proposed building lies as a mediator or point of tension between the two.

Currently the Piazza lies at the heart of a debate about homelessness in Westminster. The Council is concerned by rough sleepers inhabiting the square and the activity associated with regular soup runs that visit the site. Their proposals to solve these problems include illegalising the soup runs and designing out rough sleeping.

“I do not think of architecture primarily as either a message or a symbol, but as an envelope and background for life which goes on around it.” Peter Zumthor

The design proposal is a direct response to the context. The historical street pattern is reinstated and the programme responds to the social and economic forces that exist across the site.

The building masses carefully sculpt and shape the public space around them to create a more intimate square directly in front of the Cathedral’s entrance that wraps around to form a larger space, revealing the previously concealed side elevation.

Retail and office buildings line the commercial corridor of Victoria Street. A cluster of smaller buildings house a centre for the homeless, aiming to directly confront and address the problem of homelessness rather than simply moving it somewhere else.

The two distinctive programmes are expressed through scale and materiality. The sleek volumes of the commercial buildings are contrasted with the warm textured expression of the temporary accommodation for the homeless and the integrated support, health and educational facilities.

This theme of contrast is inherent to the proposal. The commercial gains and successes of capitalism are juxtaposed against the negative consequences of those outside the system.