Parklea Community Hub
A new community hub for a horticulture charity
Parklea Community Hub | Port Glasgow
Parklea Branching Out
Parklea Branching out, is a voluntary organisation and registered Scottish Charity in Port Glasgow, who use horticulture as a vehicle to provide a variety of different training opportunities, work experience, supported employment, recreational and social facilities for clients including adults and children with learning and or physical disabilities, those with mental health problems, school leavers, young and long term unemployed, elderly groups and community groups. They recognise the therapeutic value of a horticulture environment which has the beneficial impact of improving mental and physical health.
Parklea’s new hub provides a public space supporting their objectives, overlooking the Clyde Estuary and the adjacent historic timber drying ponds. It hosts a café, a community meeting space and other volunteer and training facilities. The building comprises a column and canopy (dendriform) grid which creates a sculptural soffit internally and covered space externally. Glazed curtain walling and brickwork enclose the structure acknowledging the garden pavilions on site.
Critically, the challenge was the site being within a flood risk area, and the building floor level needed to be raised above peak tidal level, based on a predicted 1 in 200-year flood event plus climate change. Alongside this, flood resilient construction measures have been employed to mitigate excessive damage or waste in the event of flooding.
The building directly confronts the challenges of the site exacerbated by climate change rather than ignoring them, allowing the creation of a new community hub that is deeply rooted to its site whilst embracing the human relationship with blue space.
