FSM
Feature
Meadowbank: Creating A Catalyst For Local Regeneration
By Lorna Baird, Associate at Holmes Miller
British sports stadiums in the early ‘70s generally had to meet one overarching requirement – allowing spectators a decent view of the action, usually taking place on a single open field, with few frills attached. Now, the blueprints for successful sporting developments have changed.
The biggest requirement now is for fully sustainable designs
to help the UK hit its 2050 deadline of becoming a net zero economy. But more than that, the next generation of stadia and sport centres have to also offer much longer-lasting legacies for spectators and athletes, and for local communities.
Built to host the 1970 Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh’s Meadowbank isn’t just one of the Scottish capital city’s landmarks, it’s very much a national treasure.
Yet, after more than 50 years of active service it desperately needed to be modernised - to make it fit for purpose in a net zero world, and to ensure it can continue to host and train generations of athletes for many decades to come.
After three years of construction work, in close partnership with Edinburgh City Council and Edinburgh Leisure (the charity that runs the complex), the new £47m Meadowbank sports centre officially opened in July and has been designed to achieve high standards of sustainability and is fully accessible for elite sportspeople and members of its surrounding community too.
Inside and out, every effort has been made to embrace the very best practices in sustainable design and act as a lightning rod for the wider regeneration of the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh – a largely residential district just 10 minutes’ drive from Princes Street and Edinburgh Castle – in line with the council’s own longer-term ambitions, to cut carbon emissions, while improving the health and wellbeing of every resident.
24 FSM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
