ang3lina+slidenotes

Slides Notes: - community centers should reflect and provide for the people in its community - don't mean how garbage reflects the type of shops near the community - although it is one way - demographics, for example, st.james town is surrounded by massive amount of buildings - surrounded by numbers of schools - that is why they incorporated speed bumps for safety issues, especially for the younger kids in the elementary schools located closer to the apartments - however, once it hits after school for the higher grade schools, no one seems to want to stay or they are not allowed to hang out at school grounds - thus, community center helps provide a space for them to relax and laze around and just hang out. although i wasn't able to take photos of inside community center with people, right now currently, there's also kids playing basketball within the inside courts - there are also many disabled people within the community as one can tell from the picture - community center reflects and accomodates this by providing things like handicap elevators and stuff like "no-doors" washrooms - similarly, they include huge symbols to for everyone to easily tell - the signage and wayfinding also appeals to the elderly with its large letters and size - it also uses universal symbols to appeal to everyone, even those that can't read english as seem in both the washroom signs and the eating symbol - reflects kids as there's lowered drinking fountains - the community of st. james town doesn't own that much green space or park, their version is more of a cheap and dried up lawn that seems to appeal greatly to the pigeons instead of the people - community center offers a nice and lush green space for the community, knowing that need - it is place to relax and sleep in. - as one can see from these flyers pasted outside the center, you can kind of tell what kind of people live in the neighbourhood, indeed they are notthe richest or most literate people - that is why community center provides huge amounts of activities, ranging from things like arts and craft, dance, yoga, and various sports like badminton, basketball and the like all free - one just has to register, sign some documents and viola, you are able to try out all the various things - this builds interaction and enlightment in the community - so as one knows, community centers should reflect its community by doing various things like making the center accessible, such as for the disabled - however, not all centers do that, not all community centers reflect their community, many still only have stairs. furthermore, they may not have that many programs, making people stay home and be unaware of their community centers - similar things that happen in terms of being not multi-accessible and universal is signage. for example, here is a signage that lists all the various places in the building and their direction - however, the size of the words is not ideal for the elderly, furthermore, if you were a kid or a disabled, you wouldn't think of looking that high up to find your way - even i didn't really notice it until after a long while - one of the most controversile thing nowadays, especially in terms of how much a community center can reflect a community is teh constant construction within that community. for example, near the wellesley c.c., numerous constructions of high-rise apartments are beign built around the center, almost as if boxing the existing community. thus, in the future, there will be two communities eyeing the same community center - in such a case, the lower class will lose out especially since the newer apartment buildings are more expensive and such questions arised >>> will there be enough space? enough programs?