Royston Community Centre, Edinburgh

Royston Community Centre, Edinburgh

Client: The City of Edinburgh Council
Architect: The City of Edinburgh Council
Cost: £5.5m

This development comprised the phased demolition of the existing games hall and existing single storey community centre, to make way for a new community facility.

The new facility incorporated the footprint of the existing games hall, and the existing connected community centre was to remain in use, with the services then transferred over to the new building, on completion. The demolition of the existing community centre then followed.

Primary constraints associated with this were, proximity of the existing building with the proposed and issues of segregation, along with programming to ensure continuity of service.

The New development comprises  an architecturally bespoke building incorporating a 2 storey wing of public reception, meeting and office space, a double storey height café and a games hall, all connected around a central secure courtyard.

The building is of a steel framed construction with concrete floors. The steelwork is visually expressed within the café and games hall. There is a complex arrangement of spaces internally, creating unconventional load paths. As such, cantilevers, transfer beams, and hung posts from the roof, to support the upper floor structure.

The external elevations have a palate of high performance cladding systems, including large format glazing, random pattern rainscreen cladding and Kalwall translucent insulated blocks, all requiring secondary structural support.

The brief included the requirement for additional security measures with the emphasis on robustness and vandal-proofing. Outward leaning precast concrete walls were employed to one exterior elevation, and external roller shutters were detailed into all structural openings around the building.

There is a feature floating spiral staircase formed in steelwork which required intensive design coordination to achieve.

Added Value

Due to the need to retain the existing community centre until the new centre was completed, and the requirement also to locate the new building directly adjacent to the existing, a clash was created.  We facilitated the proposed building footprint by cantilevering the upper structure over the existing community centre roof, providing the new footprint required.

Particular attention was paid to the aesthetics of the expressed steelwork, and section sizes and connection details were carefully developed with this in mind.