Is that not the Maze Prison?

Where is Aldo Van Eyck when he is needed most? This HUB procurement route and the architects who participate in it simply has to STOP. What it creates are prisons. Whether it is a school, or a mental health unit, is irrelevant. All that this procurement route (and all who sail in it) does is to grind out an institutionalised and essentially inhumane environment incarcerating others. The architects of Archial Norr really ought to spend 6 months (even without medication) in such an institution that they have designed. Make no mistake about it, this type of homogenous prison with locked wards is a nightmare for those who are sectioned / imprisoned there. I end as i began - Where is Aldo Van Eyck when he is needed most? Surely a more liberated, more compassionate heterogenous design approach is more socially appropriate and empathetic rather than this updated Victorian workhouse? Archial Norr should be ashamed of themselves. Interconnected pavilions? My arse. Forget the PR - they listened to nobody. Follow the money.

#2 James - It was a good rant, if slightly ill-informed. I would agree that the rhetoric used by the team is obviously padding and I would also agree that the visuals do not sell the scheme well. However, the nature of the environment created, and the quality of the ward spaces is not evident from the three images shown. For all we know these could be wonderfully designed spaces catering for the individual and helping them to live a fantastic quality of life. Who knows?

As a profession we need to be careful not to berate our own when we do not fully understand the circumstances behind the project.

On your second point. HUB, while it has its issues, is necessary in Scotland to allow us to build the types of facilities we need, given the current unavailability of funding.

I hope this project is enough to declare HUB a failure... @themadattic surely if you were posting images to an architecture blog these would be the best ones? I wouldn't hope for any miracles here...

Hub is only a failure in the eyes of those who wish to squander cash

Their role has now been so degraded to the point where their views and opionions hold little or no value.

You can sit and moan all you like about hub but what are you going to do about it ?

@5 So true, all you really need for a school is a big shed. Why bother with windows either when views only distract. Anything else squanders cash. It's only school kids so why bother?