Fort William science & technology centre proposed
December 13 2018
West Highland College has revealed plans to create a new science and technology centre some three miles from Fort William town centre in the Blar Mhor area.
The Stem Centre has been designed by Colin Armstrong Architects to take the form of a series of gables influenced by agricultural barns, rising from a natural stone plinth, with aluminium employed in reference to the importance of aluminium smelting to the area.
Talking through their approach the architects wrote: “The building design has taken the form of a series of gables influenced by other large-scale building types found within a Highland Rural context, be they agricultural barns or bonded warehouses. Blar Mhor is recognised on a masterplanning level as containing some of the most important civic buildings planned for construction in the next 10 years. As one of these buildings, the STEM project has embodied an appropriate level of design quality in the external envelope.”
Internally the college will be divided between a technology centre and workshops with the former arranged around a double-height glazed atrium which also serves as a multi-functional social and break-out space.
A masterplan developed by The Highland Council calls for new housing and a hospital to be built in the area
The college will focus on the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths
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Did the AJ have a big barn special in the last year?
It is the uniformity that kills it -- Different heights, different widths and it would have looked like a bit agricultural.