Bathgate Partnership Centre

BDP led the design team for the new Bathgate Partnership Centre. The 2,550m² project for West Lothian Council was completed in summer 2011. Located on a prominent site in the West Lothian town, the proposal consolidates the previously dispersed council services under one roof.

The partnership ethos for the new building is based on a concept of a shared working space strategy which will allow operational interfaces between the various stakeholders, providing users with a with a ‘one stop shop’. The ground floor of the two storey building houses a public library, advice shop, community centre and café, grouped around a double height street.

The upper floor accommodates open plan offices for the various council departments, and allows for flexible working patterns by providing the occupants with a variety of meeting spaces and quiet areas.

A south facing enclosed garden and orchard to the rear of the building enables ground floor activities such as the library, café and crèche to spill out into a dynamic external space. The facades are clad in random cut Caithness flagstone and seamed brass to create a welcoming yet appropriately civic presence, and set a benchmark for future urban realm improvements in the town.

The building has a sedum roof and incorporates a small scale gas CHP system, natural ventilation including a solar flue to utilise the stack effect, a heat displacement and recovery system as well as a number of other energy reduction measures. It has an EPC rating of A.