Youth Center, Al Ain

A low, long community building for Al Ain, organised so that a single deep portal serves as entrance, shade and meeting point. Community focus, cultural identity, sustainable design and child-friendliness were set as the four tests every decision had to pass.

The portal is oversized on purpose. It is the one gesture the building makes, and it does four jobs at once: it marks the entrance, shades the forecourt, gives shelter to people waiting, and gives the elevation its scale.

Behind it the plan is straightforward — halls, classrooms and offices off a single lit spine — because a building used by children and run by a small staff needs to be legible from the door.

Cultural identity is carried in the proportion and the screening rather than in applied motif. The building would be recognisably of Al Ain with the decoration removed, which is the test worth passing.