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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2001

  • Work on this object began.

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Hereford Community Building (unbuilt)

This is a Hereford Community Building (unbuilt). It was designed by Heatherwick Studio and Thomas Heatherwick and made for (as the client) Saint Francis Initiative. It is dated 2001.

Can a building express on the outside what goes on inside?
A community group asked the studio to design a multifunctional replacement for a 1970s church in an underserved neighborhood of Hereford, in western England. The project required domains for worship, music and movement, performance, craft, and day care; common areas; housing; and parking. To draw people in, the building needed to communicate its purpose from the outside, including which areas contained which functions. The plan for the six-story building is like a family of crystalline objects, each representing a domain, grouped around a communal hub that serves as a café by day and a pub by night.

It is credited Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

Our curators have highlighted 3 objects that are related to this one.

  • Moganshan
  • Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.
  • HSP.35
  • Pier55
  • Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.
  • HSP.43

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/85006417/ |title=Hereford Community Building (unbuilt) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>