CUSTODIAL FACILITY DESIGN
social spaces, and allow for a degree of passively controlled autonomy. Outside these private gardens, the central gardens provide walking routes and various leisure and social activities to encourage active participation.
In the houses, the main living spaces are bathed in light from all directions. The spaces are designed to be flexible.
transparency and means of orientation, where views of the houses beyond are visible within the landscape, offers real assurance to the women on arrival – during what is an incredibly vulnerable starting point in their time spent in custody. In taking this concept of transparency
further, Holmes Miller designed every building within the new facility with fully glazed ‘through and through’ entrances, with a series of features in landscaped courtyards and gardens beyond. These are strategically placed to create focal point views and relationships on entering. In the front-of-house entrance building for example, visitors can experience the flowing landscape through double height glazing, visually linking the entrance plaza and the landscaped courtyard beyond. This arrangement allows for a clear and welcoming journey experience for all users.
Maximising the site’s potential – the role of the landscape The site is located within a truly stunning landscape, forming part of a landscape belt immediately to the north of Stirling, and south of Bridge of Allan. The natural landscape context of the Ochil Hills and Forth Valley is complemented by the historic features of Stirling Castle to the south and the Wallace Monument to the east. The quality of the surrounding environment therefore plays a big role in creating a design fully embedded in the adjacent landscape, with biophilic and therapeutic design as a core concept. Wildlife also has a part to play in this context. On early site visits the team observed birds in their riverside habitat adjacent to the site, which sparked a sense of how nature, landscape, and people, can positively affect each other. A conceptual narrative was developed with SPS around geology and the flow of the River Forth through the valley – an axial route from the Ochil Hills to the east, flowing through the site, and through the Forth Valley and beyond to the west. This theme was directly linked to the
THE NETWORK | MAY 2024
transparency concept for each building, with a series of heavily glazed ‘Pavilions’ expressed as feature elements of each. These pavilions link a series of external landscaped spaces from the more public entrance plaza, through central courtyard and garden spaces, and on to the more private views to the rural landscape beyond from the houses. At every point within the journey of the occupant, whether it be for women, staff, or visitors, the external landscape plays a central role. Externally, this approach was extended
to the secure perimeter fence. In contrast to other custodial facilities, it has a green coloured coating, dramatically softening its appearance against the surrounding landscape. The impact of such a simple move is particularly felt from within the bedroom spaces, where the secure fence blends seamlessly with the trees and hills beyond. There are dedicated, semi-secure
garden spaces within the four individual houses, surrounded by mature hedging to provide appropriate levels of privacy for the occupants. These gardens work as a series of outdoor rooms, are located immediately adjacent to central internal
Importance of sensitive interior design While there are a range of size and types of accommodation within HMP & YOI Stirling – from individual private bedrooms to communal dining and library spaces – the main goal throughout the design process was to achieve a domestic nature – with a scale and sense of space that is familiar and comfortable to its occupants. The single storey approach, a decision taken at early stage by SPS, greatly assists in this overall feeling of scale internally. It has also allowed us to maximise the amount of daylight via rooflights within key spaces. Another important strategic approach
was the use of timber doors throughout. Traditionally, given the security requirements associated with custodial facilities, metal high security doorsets would be required. In this case however, given the female occupant group, a timber door solution was heavily researched. Working at early design stage with SPS and Safehinge Primera, a timber solution that balanced the security needs with a domestic aesthetic was realised. This single approach is successful in providing a meaningful contribution to the overall look and feel of the house buildings. Beyond the doors, the bedroom spaces
themselves were subject to an intensive design exercise, led by SPS. Timber wall finishes with integrated feature lighting and a warm floor material palette help to create a homely environment, while a large format window with a low cill incorporating a reading seat creates a generous visual link to the wildflower gardens and distant landscape. Throughout all the main social spaces
a combination of timber wall linings and landscape-based wall graphics help to further strengthen this link from inside to out. A variety of natural, flower
Feature ‘pavilion’ buildings are heavily glazed to provide a transparent feeling. These spaces link each of the garden spaces together as part of the intuitive journey through the site.
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