If you were a kid and this was your community centre, would you ever want to go home? The Sports and Leisure Centre in Saint-Cloud, France was opened over a year and half ago but I still can’t get over the fantastic use of colour. Designed by KOZ Architectes, the environment-friendly building is a bold gem of architecture. Arch Daily called it a “little castle and cubist mountain” which is a pretty perfect description for a building that houses the imaginations of so many children. The colourful exterior glass is a palette of pure harmony. The thick stripes could have gone horribly wrong but, with fantastic colour selection, they seamlessly compliment each other like a perfectly organized crayon box. I love the night shots of the centre as the illuminated horizontal rooms “light up” numerous vertical swatches of colour. Inside the building, the architects repeated the same systematic colour system to create an easy navigation system for children and reflect a bold graffiti-like style. If I lived in Saint-Cloud, I would try to find an apartment with a direct view of this beautiful building. Oh and I might try out that climbing wall bathed in chartreuse light… More city councils need to follow the lead of Saint-Cloud and explore vibrant architecture for community centres and other public spaces as they really can become sources of city design pride and more imporantly, colourful castles of child-like wonder.

(photographs by stephan lucas and via arch daily)