Goodson Associates was appointed as part of the design team to build a new ‘through-school’ campus in Largs within the HUB process.

The new 40,000 sq. ft building will replace the existing 1960’s secondary school as well as integrating the local Largs Primary and St Mary’s Primary schools under the one roof. A 100-child nursery was also provided within this new complex. We were initially commissioned to provide Strategic Support which then followed through to winning the project in an open tender.

The first and the greatest challenge faced at Largs was the site itself. Within the council’s business case the most favorable site option was to the rear of Largs situated at the foot of the Knock Hill.

As the name suggests the topography of the site is complex and provided one of the biggest challenges to the project. There is approximately a 25m level difference between Lower Alexander Avenue and the golf range to the rear of the site. There is also the Noddsdale Burn which cuts through the site which needed to be diverted and culverted through the new school car park.

The campus was designed as a series of interlinking buildings stepping up the site to create a series of plateaus. The team worked hard to design in the ‘split levels’ and ensure that the 5-storey building (if you take into account the steps) is sympathetic to the original contours and minimizes the amount of abnormal works needed associated with groundworks.

Based on various project specific factors such as constraints on site access and craneage, a steel frame and composite concrete slab solution was chosen for the project.

A high degree of co-ordination with the architect was then required to ensure that an efficient layout plan could then be produced to suit the characteristics of the material and deliver an economic solution. The large span requirements of the double hall sports wing dictated that this element of the building roof be designed as a steel frame with a full-length truss.