SOS Children’s Village in Chicago is a locally-designed residential complex to develop stable foster families and to reconnect foster children to their siblings and sometimes their parents. SOS Children’s Village, Chicago was the site of an old mattress factory. This site was donated by the city to build a home for around 100 children.
The SOS Children’s Villages is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring children of various backgrounds the bare necessities, as well as the chance to overcome their suffering & restraints.
The village consists of 12 family homes and 4 duplexes. It also consists of a director’s house, administration building, playground and a community centre.
The highlight of the village is the Lavezzorio Community Center designed by Ar. Jeanne Gang. This building includes daycare centres for infant and toddler programmes, outpatient therapy centre, meeting rooms and administrative offices. SOS community centre combines services for foster care families and neighbourhood families in one building.
Architect: Studio Gang Architects, Chicago, USA
Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Services engineer: CCJM Engineers
Landscape architect: Site Design Group
The Lavezzorio Community Center is the focal point of SOS Children’s Village. It combines various social services and neighbourhood amenities under one roof thus serving children and families in the city’s Auburn-Gresham neighbourhood.
The Lavezzorio Community Center is a 1500 m² site. The budget for the project was the US $ 3.5 million only. The budget constraints resulted in a lot of setbacks and restrictions. The architect asked for donations from various suppliers and manufacturers for carpet, ceiling panels, wood flooring etc. Because of this construction approach, the most striking feature of the building was determined.
The south-west corner of the building is built in various concrete mixes like fly ash, portland cement and slag aggregates. The concrete was layered in bands with colour variation to display its liquid nature. This led to a design that directly exposed its materiality. This external feature resembles the geological stratification and the different hues of grey tones in irregular horizontal lines represent different concrete densities.
The concrete of various densities too was donated from various sources like construction sites and hence the decision to make this a part of the building was made. The remarkable part of this building is that the constraints have added to its beauty, they were displayed rather than being hidden away which makes the building iconic. It tells the story of how it was financed.
Another material that is used is glass. Glass creates the opposite effect of concrete giving a more open and light feel. The openings thereby break the monotony of concrete dramatically. The orange light from inside the building seeks attention for the building and helps it stand out among the neighbourhood.
Before designing the interior, the people in the neighbourhood; the ones going to use the space, were asked about their requirements. They didn’t want just another basketball court but a place where their family could learn and grow. Inside the Lavezzorio Community Center, there are naturally lit public spaces to encourage a lot of learning opportunities and social interaction.
The entrance hall is occupied by a large staircase. On one side, the steps are covered with a large green carpet and pillows are placed on it for the children to use. This staircase faces a large television and also serves as an informal meeting space, classroom seating and an impromptu stage for performances.
The large structural stair connects the levels and also acts as a mountain-like landscape for the children to play, climb, perform, and hang out. The lobby at the top of the stairs also acts as a computer lab. The spaces are multi-functional to get the most out of it.
The concrete densities are mimicked by a local mural artist inside the atrium.
The daycare classrooms are arranged around a south-facing courtyard on the ground floor and have direct access to sunlight for the children to play outdoors.
The other spaces like the caseworkers’ offices, counselling areas, and a huge multi-purpose community room are on the upper floor. The large community room on the upper floor also serves as a classroom, exercise room and meeting space. It faces two of the busiest streets and has glass for walls which creates a very open and light environment.
There are V-shaped columns in the corner that support the cantilevered beam that can be seen from the windows of the community room without obstructing the view. These V-shaped columns provide aesthetic detail to the interior and the exterior of the building thereby breaking free from the monotony.
The ceiling is made from translucent polycarbonate panels which are also donated. They brighten up the place by letting natural light pass thus creating interesting light and shadow patterns.
As there is a lot of natural light entering the main lobby, it is said to have a calming psychological effect which is required for the individuals entering this building. It also minimises the effect created by the volume of the staircase.
The rigid appearance of the space is reduced by placing organic circular shapes thereby making it children-friendly too.
The main flooring is polished concrete, however, the colour of the flooring changed with space to green, yellow and orange with linoleum flooring. The colour makes it fun and easier for the children to identify the spaces. The wooden flooring that was donated is used on the upper floor for the community room to use for the various activities that take place there.
The ceiling panels used in the community room are donated to and serve the purpose of acoustic absorption. Lights are distributed evenly along the space to provide ample light along with the natural light from the windows.
The Lavezzorio Community Center structure protects the children and gives them a sense of belonging. The planning is specific to the users thereby bringing out the maximum use from the spaces.
The Lavezzorio Community Center provides a sense of hopefulness to the residents who have gone through a lot of emotional distress. It adheres to reducing the local gloom and acts as a mediator thereby creating an environment of liveliness, providing some happiness and imbibing a sense of community.
