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Newmains and St Brigid’s community hub wins best of the best at Scottish Design awards

Multidisciplinary design practice, BDP collected two prizes at the Scottish Design Awards on Thursday night, including the ‘Architecture Grand Prix’ which marks the best project from all of the winners for its work at Newmains and St Brigid’s Community Hub.

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The Scottish Design Awards celebrate profound examples of architecture, art and advertising that inform how we interact with the world around us. BDP picked up the gold award for best education project for Newmain’s and St Brigid’s Community Hub before winning the prize for the best design from all categories. The new school and community campus is home to both the primary school, and the Newmains Family Learning Centre. Accommodating more than 600 pupils and members of the community, BDP’s design creates a dynamic, radial array of teaching wings set around an open, central shared space that will be used by multiple community groups.

The new hub provides every classroom with direct access to the grounds, encouraging a healthy relationship between young people and the outdoors. External play spaces offer a range of sensory stimulating apparatus that include a treehouse, dens and play trails, whilst further plans include the creation of a wildlife habitat to enable outdoor learning about animals and nature.

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.

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Lindsey Mitchell, architect director at BDP, explains: “Schools are at the heart of any healthy community. So, providing a successful, sustainable learning environment that promotes wellbeing is a contributing factor in supporting learning within a well-knitted social environment.

“This recognition for the creative, sustainable design of Newmain’s and St Bridgid’s Hub is fantastic. The project has always been about collaboration, and about creating a place for learning. That ethos really comes through. Iconic features such as the helical slide that wraps around a statement figurative tree in the shared central space make it an original and exciting place for children and local people.

“It really is an exceptional space for community activity - delivering inclusion and engagement to build social cohesion and every unique aspect of this project has been received exactly as intended.”