Combining community wellbeing and sporting excellence in Edinburgh

Two new sporting facilities in Edinburgh, designed by Holmes Miller, were planned not just to nurture the next generation of elite athletes, but to improve community wellbeing too.

Both funded by City of Edinburgh Council, Meadowbank Sports Centre and the Trinity Academy Sports Campus represent more than £50 million of investment into the city’s sports capacity.

Participation, accessibility and sustainability are at the heart of the facilities, which will bring huge physical, mental, and social benefits to the people of Edinburgh.

Integrating community benefit and wellbeing into environmentally conscious sports and leisure buildings is a core brief Holmes Miller is getting used to working to, as more urban local authorities look for creative ways to cut vehicle use by meeting the needs of their residents within a short walking distance of their homes.

We are also seeing a growing trend towards community involvement in the design process.

A long history of sporting excellence

Meadowbank Stadium has been the home of elite sport in the Scottish capital for decades. Built to host the 1970 Commonwealth Games, it was something of an Edinburgh icon. Many renowned athletes spent their early days training there, including former Olympic 100m champion Alan Wells, and long-distance favourite Liz McColgan.

The city’s professional rugby team had been based there, as had a Scottish professional football side.

Trinity Academy, much like its more famous neighbour, also has a proud sporting track record. The school has helped develop the potential of several world-class athletes in recent years, and hopes to continue inspiring many more.

Replacing an icon

After more than 50 years of active service, Meadowbank urgently needed updated into a facility fit for purpose in a modern, environmentally conscious world. In 2017, with plans in place for a new centre, the old building was decommissioned.

Holmes Miller’s director Ian Cooney, lead architect on the project, wanted to ensure the local landmark was replaced with something worthy of the Meadowbank name.

“Revitalising such an iconic facility was a huge responsibility as well as a privilege,” he said. “We had to be certain it could deliver professional and elite sports competitions well into the future, as well as provide best-in-class training and leisure facilities for the local community.

“This meant not only working with sporting bodies such as Scottish Athletics to meet some very exact technical specifications, but also designing spaces that both professional and amateur athletes would enjoy.”

A home for local clubs

As well as providing world-class indoor and outdoor training facilities for Edinburgh-based elite athletes including 1500m world champion Jake Wightman, who grew up in the city, Meadowbank has also become home to numerous local sports groups and teams thanks to its two outdoor 3G football and rugby pitches.

The re-opening allowed FC Edinburgh to return home after five years spent playing at Ainslie Park on the outskirts of the city. It also now serves as home to Hibernian FC’s women’s team for their Scottish Women's Premier League home fixtures.

An 8-court indoor hall features seating for around 1,000 spectators, and to widen use of the building to more participants, facilities were included to cater for netball, boxing, squash, martial arts, trampolining and dance.

Trinity Academy Sports Campus also welcomes a host of local sports clubs like Waverley Inveresk Hockey Club and Trinity Academicals Rugby Club to its professional-standard playing fields, and boasts a four-court sports hall, gym hall, dance studio and fitness suite.

Creating community hubs

Although primarily designed to continue work as a venue for elite-level sporting competition, Meadowbank is equally embraced as an important community hub.

The venue supports accessible participation and has much-improved indoor facilities, including two multi-sport games halls, two fitness studios, a cycle studio and a gym with triple the number of exercise stations as its predecessor.

Local people can also use the centre’s café, meeting rooms, hospitality suite and event facilities.

Trinity Academy Sports Campus makes a similar investment in the local area, with public facilities like a café, community learning centre, fitness suite and a workshop for the repair and storage of bikes and kayaks, which were included in the design after close consultation with local people.

Lead architect Ryan Holmes, a director at Holmes Miller explained: “From the beginning, we knew the local community wanted to benefit from the centre, so we listened to their desires and were flexible in our approach. During the consultation process, direct feedback from residents helped us prioritise open, well-designed spaces, adjusting our plans to make sure their expectations were delivered.”

Green credentials

In line with the council’s ambitions to cut carbon emissions, Holmes Miller embraced the very best elements of green design, both at Meadowbank and Trinity Academy.

Meadowbank is an accessible centre for community sport, with impressive sustainability credentials which include a low-velocity air displacement system, which helps create a calm and fresh environment with low energy consumption, and HFO (hydrofluro-olefins) based chillers rather than conventional HFC (hydrofluorocarbons) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Both facilities also serve as linchpins in City of Edinburgh Council’s plans for low-car-use, low-carbon communities, supporting its commitment to creating ‘20-minute neighbourhoods’ – where residents can find most of their daily needs within a 20-minute return walk from home.

The importance of wellbeing and community

“As a practice we’ve learned a lot through our work on these two buildings, especially about the importance of wellbeing in community-led projects, and how sports and leisure can be a catalyst for change and renewal,” says Ian Cooney. “Meadowbank especially has sparked a wider regeneration of its local area, as it is such a strong, visible statement of the council’s investment in local wellbeing and sustainability.

“More and more local authorities across the country are beginning to strengthen their commitment to environmentally conscious design and to creating neighbourhoods where it’s easier to leave the car at home, because facilities that enhance lives have been brought closer to the people.

“If things continue in this direction, I am genuinely excited about the future of community architecture.”