Scottish Design Awards 2019 – Public Building Category – Highly Commended
The building has a complex series of steeply pitched roofs with clerestory windows over the main hall and café area, double height central circulation space and a two storey office area.
To meet sustainability aspirations the structure was designed almost entirely in timber using innovative bracing systems, including an engineered timber plate ring beam in the single storey hall, to distribute lateral load to timber and plywood vertical cantilever ribs and racking panels. The roof construction is non-standard, using timber l-beams spanning over widely spaced prefabricated girder trusses with steel channel chord bracing. The double height circulation space is supported on glulam main beams and columns, including a long span glulam cantilever at the main glazed area. A large timber canopy independent from the building shades the café windows. A small steel frame to stabilise this is one of the few areas where steel work is used.
