Newmains & St Brigid’s Community Hub
- Location
- Glasgow, UK
- Client
- North Lanarkshire Council
- Expertise
- Architecture
- Landscape Architecture
- Town Planning
- Completion
- 2023
- Size
- 4,787 sq m
- Cost
- £18m
In an unassuming former mining village about 18 miles south-east of Glasgow, The Newmains & St Brigid’s community hub combines the Newmains Primary School, St Brigid’s Primary School, a nursery and additional community facilities.
Accommodating more than 600 pupils and members of the community, this new building provides every classroom with direct access to a playground, encouraging a healthy relationship between students and the outdoors. The design includes child-sized doors in each of the play zones and a central boot room to encourage frequent outdoor play.
Each element of the building has been carefully considered to cater to the education and social needs of users. The unique design delivers open plan activity spaces in each teaching wing, high quality learning areas, and more intimate reflection spaces for small groups or personal projects.
The clever plan reflects the two distinct but co-located schools, with separate wings for upper and lower years that reduce the scale of the building, create a sense of progression, and enhance accessibility. Each wing radiates from a central, multi-purpose gathering space.
Sustainability is at the heart of the project – each teaching wing and lower-level space is constructed from structural timber framing, significantly reducing the building’s embodied carbon. Reclaimed timber is used in the landscaping design, whilst the Hub’s unique interior is characterised by distinctive timber finishes. Ventilation systems incorporating heat recovery combine with photovoltaic panels to improve the building’s energy efficiency.
The building design is for the community, by the community, resulting in innovative interventions such as play tunnels, a grass pyramid to climb and a very special tree house.
“It was wonderful to see the reaction of pupils as they entered the new building. The look of wonder and excitement on their faces was a joy to see. It is a fantastic facility for the entire community to benefit from for years to come.”
“School is a place for learning, but it’s also a place for children to embrace their youth and make life-long memories. That ethos really comes through in the design of Newmains & St Brigid’s iconic features such as the helical slide that wraps around a statement figurative tree in the shared central space.”
