The £6.7m Pollok Civic Realm, designed by Archial Architects, has won a Royal Institute of British Architects Regional Award the day after it was officially opened by Nicola Sturgeon, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing.

Built between the newly expanded Pollok Health Centre and the Pollok Leisure Centre, Pollok Civic Realm is Glasgow's first facility with truly integrated health and social work and leisure facilities.

Forming part of the overall Pollok Town Centre regeneration, it houses a café, library, museum, child-care facilities and other specialist social and healthcare related services.

Calum MacCalman, director of Archial Architects, said: "We are delighted to win this prestigious RIBA award for this magnificent building. I would personally like to thank everyone involved with the project, particularly Russell Baxter and Nick Peaker, who were instrumental in the design and delivery of the project on behalf of Archial."


Russell Baxter of Archial Architects said the idea behind the facility was to create a colonnade providing a route interlinking the Pollok community with the new transport interchange and Silverburn shopping centre so that people are drawn through the building and, by virtue of this route, encouraged to make use of their civil amenities.

"The philosophy underlying the building design was to create a civic hub that housed all the various essential aspects of communal life under one roof. With that in mind, the building seeks to create an all-inclusive space with all its constituents spiralling off from a central reception desk.

"The design sought to create the type of building that members of the public would be familiar with and feel comfortable within to encourage them to spend time frequenting the various aspects of the hub, and already there are indications that this objective has been achieved successfully," he said.

From a single entrance the public access the refurbished leisure centre, new Pollok Library and Pollok Kist, GSWRA, South West Stress Centre, Citizens Advice Bureau, café and the refurbished and expanded Health Centre. As such, the Civic Realm also provides opportunities for effective and innovative joint working through co-location of services. Given the multiple stakeholders involved in the Pollok Civic Realm, the design process involved a comprehensive consultation process.

Already, the pioneering Pollok Civic Realm building is being tipped as an exemplar to which future community hubs should aspire. Indeed, it has also been nominated for a Scottish Design Award 2009.

(GK/JM)