Dee Park Community Centre Reading

Dee Park Community Centre known as ‘Dee Space’ is an essential asset to the Reading neighbourhood, a much loved hub of social activity.

GBP Architects worked on enhancing the floor layouts and coordinated the technical design for the build of this community centre (under D&B with Star Contractors). It opened in partnership between Reading Borough Council and Peabody Housing Association.

The centre provides the local community with a new hall, children’s centre, youth groups, and meeting rooms, along with an ancillary café, and flexibles spaces from arts and crafts groups and larger functions. On ground floor the hall and café are designed to be open plan to accommodate larger functions, served by centrally placed kitchen. Both of these spaces can open out onto the garden, which connects to the open space to the east. The youth lounge is  private and secure, with its own access to the garden.

The Community Centre promotes inclusivity and multi-use spaces. On first floor, meeting rooms are designed to be flexible and suitable for a range of training, meetings, and other small-scale uses. An office space allows for services to be provided locally and is adaptable to meet the evolving requirements of the different teams working here.

Dee Space is part of the Dee Park regeneration programme, which has transformed a 40-year-old residential estate into an exciting new living environment.