Through Water

Scadding Court Community Centre Expansion, Kensington-Chinatown

2026 | Academic | Group Project, with Dante Di Vincenzo | Professor Carol Phillips | Community Center

The expression of water is articulated through form, circulation, materiality, and the organization of space. Water is understood not only as a physical element, but as an abstract idea that informs the design of the community centre. Water is used as a unifying element to reconnect the community and revive a neglected area within a diverse and active neighbourhood. The project aims to create a community centre that celebrates the water cycle, using water to connect people. Water is treated beyond as a system, but as something lived and experienced, its flow, pause, and transformation unfolding in parallel with human movement, gathering, and rest.

As rain is collected, slowed, pooled, and filtered, people move through the building, gather around moments of light, vegetation, and water, and experience the space as a sequence shaped by environmental change. In this way, the water cycle becomes visible, tangible, and communal, both inside and outside the building.