02-05-2012

Blakenhall Healthy Living Centre: when community means sustainability

Sport & Wellness,

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Blakenhall Healthy Living Centre: when community means sustainability
As part of a redevelopment programme for Wolverhampton, in the British Midlands, Architype built St Luke's Primary School and the Blakenhall Centre, a place offering sustainable community spaces and activities.

The new civic centre is located in the immediate vicinity of St Luke's School (also see: http://www.floornature.com/blog/st-lukeand39s-elementary-school-by-architype-is-the-first-breeam-excellent-primary-school-in-britain-7629/ and adds new life and a new focus for the community in a corner lot which was in the past unused.

In addition to a multipurpose hall for sporting events, the centre includes a gym, a meeting room, offices and a café, offering something for all ages.

The centre is organised into two blocks: a western block with a wooden façade and zig-zag skylights on the northern side reflecting the style of the adjacent school; and an eastern block with a more industrial look thanks to Corten cladding with vertical openings and timber inserts to promote the circulation of air.
Corten is also used in the fencing around the site, in a new version by a local artist.

Timber plays an essential role in the western block and in the interiors, where it is used in the structures and forms of prefabricated cladding elements.
The central glass “opening” between the two blocks is the starting point for pathways inside the building, and a space used to provide natural light in the adjacent rooms.

When it comes to sustainability, the project stands out for its heating system using excess heat produced by the biomass boiler in St Luke's Primary School, especially in the evenings and on holidays, when the school is not in use and the community centre is most intensively used.

In this project Architype demonstrates that responding to citizens’ sensibility to the issue of sustainability is a very successful strategy, resulting in lesser environmental impact and greater professional satisfaction. As demonstrated by the project combining Blakenhall Healthy Living Centre and St Luke’s Primary School at the heart of the revitalisation programme for this former industrial zone, which has been awarded the Regen WM Outstanding Place of the Decade 2010 Award.


Design: Architype, http://www.architype.co.uk
Location: Wolverhampton, UK
Client: Wolverhampton City Council with ABCD Regeneration
Related links: St Luke's Primary School, http://www.floornature.com/blog/st-lukeand39s-elementary-school-by-architype-is-the-first-breeam-excellent-primary-school-in-britain-7629/
Photographer: Leigh Simpson
Completion of work: 2010


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