Firm： Astudio

Type： Commercial › Exhibition Center Cultural › Cultural Center Hall/Theater Educational › Other Government + Health › Community Center

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2013

SIZE： 10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET： $10K - 50K

Photos： Morely von Sternberg (6), Will Pryce (3), James Brittain Photography (1)

Spotlight isn’t a youth club, or a youth centre - it’s a creative youth space designed to inspire. It has been shaped by young people, for young people. It offers free, state of the art sound, film, fashion, art and broadcasting facilities, alongside performance, dance, boxing and chill areas. During the School day part of the building is used by the adjacent Langdon Park School as their sixth form. Spotlight is partnered with organisations like the National Theatre, BFI, Barbican, IMD Legion, Poplar Boys & Girls Club, Whitechapel Gallery, CM Sounds and the Tower Project. It’s a unique, welcoming space that’s open to all, and is dedicated to growing young talent.

Spotlight: has been four years in the making. With a rapidly increasing youth population it was recognised that existing youth facilities in Poplar, Tower Hamlets were woefully inadequate. Poplar HARCA led a partnership of local stakeholders to look at making a lasting difference to the area. A group of local young people was set-up and they were involved throughout the consultation process- from defining the brief to agreeing on the interior design. The main funding received was through the government’s Myplace programme of capital grants for the development of world-class youth centres.