April 5 2023

Plans for a new community hub in Bellshill have taken shape with the submission of detailed plans by Keppie Design.

Orbiston Community Hub, delivered with landscape architects Hirst and Morgan Sindall Construction, will sit on 5.3ha of land on the outskirts of the town occupied by the former Sacred Heart and Lawmuir Primary Schools.

It will entail the demolition of both 1950s schools to co-locate pupils and staff within a single hub building that will also house a nursery, community hall and cafe.

A central street will connect both schools to the rear with shared resources including a gym and dining hall at the main reception and cafe, offering segregation between public and private elements. Formed predominantly from light and dark brick, the use of colour will be reserved for flashing and cladding panels.

Championing the civic presence of their approach Keppie wrote: "The southern and eastern edge of the locality resource component of the building is proposed at a height sympathetic to the wider residential context. The larger volumes of the shared gym hall and dining hall strengthen the building’s civic quality whilst maintaining a welcoming scale using material changes to create a proportionally considered architecture appropriate to the building's use. The teaching block to the north of the site is based around a repeating grid to create bright well-proportioned teaching and activity spaces designed to deliver a modern teaching curriculum."

A substantial tract of land to the north will offer generous outdoor amenities including woodland, landscaped play spaces, playing fields and grassland.  

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