Off The Fence, Portslade, Brighton

RIBA Stage: 0 - 5 (Design + Construction)

Project Value: £550,000

Sector: Community, Healthcare

Consultants: Woodhart Group (Contractor), Fab My Life (Interior Design), CMK Planning (Planning Consultant), Total Building Control (Approved Inspector)

We were privileged to support local charity, Off The Fence, to provide a new women's centre to a recently purchased commercial space. This important facility provides a welcoming, safe space for women going through a time of crisis or emotional difficulty, so it was essential that our designs were creative, considered and inventive.

The key aspirations for the project were to provide a safe space for the women it supported, and that accessibility, a sense of home, and feelings of safety and tranquillity prevailed. We also needed to maximise the potential of the available land by building on 95% of the site all whilst keeping a handle on the small budget. As such we needed to be efficient and subtle in our use of design features using height, volume and light to create a main space that made occupants look up, catching glimpses of the sky, passing clouds and swaying trees to evoke feelings of peace and stillness.

EN Architects provided design, planning, detail design and contractual support for the charity from the project's inception through to completion.