Building Briefs – March 18th

Johnstone’s new £14.5 million town hall is now getting set open to the public for the first time.

The state-of-the-art facility is set to be the centrepiece of life in the town for generations to come from Monday 23 March.

The striking glass-fronted structure has already been declared a winner – having been named Public Building of the Year at the Scottish Property Awards 2015.

It has been designed with a central ‘high street’ off which sits the main hall and theatre space, the new Johnstone library, a coffee shop and meeting and conference rooms.

The ground floor also contains a ceremony suite and bases for Police Scotland and Macmillan Cancer Support, while offices for Renfrewshire Council staff and a dance studio are upstairs.

The building won’t be fully operational until later this year but there will be a phased rollout of services, including the library, main reception and customer service centre.

Work begins on Maggie’s Forth Valley centre

Building work has started on a new Maggie’s centre in the grounds of Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

Maggie’s Forth Valley will be the second Maggie’s centre built with funding from Walk the Walk, organisers of MoonWalk Scotland, after Maggie’s Glasgow, which opened in 2011 in the grounds of Gartnavel Hospital. The centres are warm and welcoming places with qualified professionals on hand to offer support to people affected by cancer.

Design plans to transform the Kirkgate

Leith’s Kirkgate is to be transformed as part of a plan to improve the area for the public. Changes will see the addition of trees, uplighting and new seating arrangements, as well as the removal of the “tusk” feature outside Kirkgate shopping centre.

Aimed at creating a safer and more attractive space, the proposals have been approved by the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership after it received feedback from residents in the area.

Banks Renewables submits plans for Scottish wind farm

Scottish clean energy developer Banks Renewables has submitted plans for an 88.4MW wind farm situated east of New Cumnock in East Ayrshire, amid promises the project could deliver around £15m in community benefit payments over its 25-year lifespan.

The proposals for the 26-turbine Lethans Community Wind Farm were submitted to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents and Deployment Unit and East Ayrshire Council last Friday.

BMJ submit plans for cutting edge medical imaging centre

BMJ Architects have submitted plans for a new medical imaging centre of excellence (ICE) at the Southern General Hospital Campus on behalf of the University of Glasgow.

The £16 million research facility will bring academic experts and medical staff together to advance the field of stratified medicine through access to cutting edge equipment such as the UK’s first 7 Tesla clinical MRI scanner.

To be built by BAM Construction, the facility will take the form of a glazed box overlain by a woven steel mesh to provide solar shading. This will rise above a base of polished concrete panels.

Beith road designs to go on show

The chosen designs for the A737 Improvements scheme at Beith in North Ayrshire will go on show next week, minister for transport & islands Derek Mackay has announced.

A public exhibition of the preferred option for the scheme including proposed junction improvements near Beith at Head Street/Wardrop Street and Barrmill Road, will be held in the local community centre on Friday 27 March, and locals are invited along to see the plans for themselves.

When completed, the new junctions at Beith will help improve the road system around the town, improve traffic flow and bring additional road safety benefits.

Architect’s plans to aid art school

A rare 109-year-old set of designs drawn up by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for a house in the Tudor style is to be sold at auction, and could raise thousands of pounds for the appeal to restore his most famous building.

Auchinibert House, in the village of Killearn, Stirlingshire, was one of only a few domestic commissions undertaken by the Glasgow architect.

Mackintosh was commissioned by Francis J Shand, manager of the Nobel Explosives Co. of Glasgow, to design his home in the style of a Cotswolds manor house.

The plans, featuring the architect’s distinctive writing, will be sold by a Scots collector at Bonhams’ annual Scottish sale in Edinburgh on April 16.

The eight framed sheets are estimated to fetch £15,000-20,000.

A “significant part” of the proceeds will go to the Mackintosh Appeal which is raising money to restore Glasgow School of Art

Low energy housing could help tackle affordable rural homes shortage, MSPS told

A Dumfriesshire estate owner who has provided pioneering, low energy housing has told a cross-party group of MSPs about the role such developments could play in easing fuel poverty and the shortage of affordable rural homes across Scotland.

Jamie Carruthers, owner of the Dormont Estate, was at the Scottish Parliament to present results from a study into his own innovative housing portfolio to politicians.

In August 2011, Dormont completed a development of eight homes built to ‘Passivhaus’ standards, an industry benchmark of superior quality low energy housing well above current UK requirements. The design of the houses means they effectively heat themselves with very little additional heating required.

Mr Carruthers presented research that showed the extraordinary savings on fuels bills for residents at the development which has won a series of industry awards including ‘Rural Development of the Year’ at the Scottish Home Awards 2012.

The two-year study has shown that the heating, lighting and hot water for a three bedroom (6 person) house costs as little as £100 a year – about a tenth of the average heating cost alone for a similar home in the UK – and that total energy costs were only around £500 a year. This clearly has a major impact on household disposable income and critically, in a rural area where car dependency is high, making travel more affordable.

The homes near Lockerbie were constructed as part of the ‘Rural Homes for Rent’ pilot scheme that was launched by the Scottish Government and Scottish Land & Estates in 2008. However, the pilot ended last year and no replacement has been announced, creating a void for the creation of affordable rural housing in the private rented sector.

Kilmarnock housing development nears completion

39 new houses at the West Langlands Street development in Kilmarnock are expected to be completed by the end of the month, with the keys being handed to new tenants just after Easter.

The site comprises a mix of accessible accommodation and larger family homes. It will provide one and two bedroom flats, three bedroom family homes, three bedroom homes suitable for wheelchair users and homes suitable for older people.

The East Ayrshire Council development has been built in partnership with Mactaggart & Mickel Contracts and supported by £1.794 million of funding from the Scottish Government. Work commenced on site in November 2013.

Meanwhile, 22 new homes at the Portland Street development in Kilmarnock are set to welcome tenants in May. The site will provide a mix of homes including eight one-bedroom flats, 12 two-bedroom flats as well as two homes for wheelchair users.

The homes at the Portland Street site are being built in partnership with McTaggart Construction and supported by £1.012m of funding from the Scottish Government. Work commenced on site in March 2014.

£21m for community ownership of energy projects

A local heat storage initiative by Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association is one of five projects across Scotland to benefit from more than £20 million in funding that will help reshape how energy is delivered and used in communities throughout the country.

The funding allocation, from the Local Energy Challenge Fund, was announced by the Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing at the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) conference organised by Local Energy Scotland.

The fund was initially announced by the former first minister Alex Salmond MSP last year.

Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association will receive £3.2m to develop innovative local heat storage solutions, which will help alleviate fuel poverty for over 1,000 tenants across Falkirk and the Lothians.

The other successful recipients are:

In addition to the awarding of the funds Mr Ewing also confirmed the Challenge Fund will be open for a second round.