RAISE ME UP
The site for the project is Old Kent Road, in the Borough of Southwark, London. OKR has been included into the Opportunity and Intensification Areas of London, which means that the area will see a regeneration (or gentrification?) process in the next 20 years.
In this context, my site is the former Peckham Civic Centre (600-608 Old Kent Road), today The Everlasting Arms Ministries, a Pentecostal church. The project's name is 'Raise me up' and it explores the possibility of creating a space that is built for the community and by the community. The proposal merges the Pentecostal Church and the local businesses and facilities currently under the threat of the upcoming regeneration.
The research - shown through the Knolling Photograph and the Mural (a reinterpretation of a tradition Altar Piece) - has helped me to understand what Christian Pentecostal churches are (by also comparing them with Catholic churches) and how diffused they are in Southwark. They are important for the OKR community as much as other facilities are, this is why the project's aim is to use the site as a platform to guarantee the survival of these religious institutions, together with the numerous local businesses and activities.
This is going to happen through a key strategy move: changing the actual horizontal layout of the church into a vertical layout, that would allow to host within the same building the church (heart of the space) and businesses all around it.
