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The Sittingbourne Cultural Centre (SCC) was designed as a highly graphic pavilion to provide an appropriate physical presence for the civic quarter of the town. The proposal is responsive to the larger context of the town, forming a transition between the compact linear high street and the more expansive civic area around Central Avenue. The SCC building’s entrance faces the High Steet forming a hinge between the commercial and public realms of the town.

The major accommodation is arranged over two floors.  The museum/exhibition space is situated at the centre of the site, the other programmes are zoned in strips around this public area.

The building has an outer skin of coloured high-pressure laminate boards, resonant of weather-boarded Kentish mills. In this case each board constitutes a pixel.

The coloured pixels combine to form highly decorated facades.  At night coloured lights glow from between the boards, transforming the building.  Boards run across windows where shading is required.  They can be hinged to vary lighting conditions.  Strips of coloured glass continue the banding across the double height west window forming a stained glass wall to the exhibition hall.