Residents access the new centre from Mabelle Avenue via an elongated ramp that leads downward into a dramatic, double-height basketball court, illuminated by windows gazing onto a sunken garden on one side. The adjacent multi-purpose room features moveable partitions to allow flexibility for comfortably accommodating both large-scale neighbourhood events and more intimate community meetings, workshops and the like. Designed with a decidedly light colour palette, both interior and exterior aspire toward an airy, contemplative state of mind, offering a distinctive contrast to what is usually thought of as subterranean architecture. The building’s envelope, conceived as a floating white volume, hovers above the existing landscape to create a Zen-like sense of serenity and repose, set in artful opposition to the bustling activities unfolding inside and around.