Hailed as the first sports facility of its kind in the UK, The National sports training centre at Inverclyde is a truly inclusive residential centre catering for everyone.
Following the success of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the Scottish Government and sportscotland committed £12m to developing a new, inclusive National Centre in the seaside town of Largs in North Ayrshire. It was to replace the sixty year old National Centre Inverclyde in need of renovation. Here was an opportunity to create a new, single building residential centre - where all rooms were accessible and had direct access to the sports facilities.
An open main contractor-led design and build tender was undertaken resulting in the appointment of Morrison Construction. Their design team was led by Reiach & Hall Architects, who sportscotland had worked with previously on the National Performance Centre for Sport and Aberdeen Sports Village.
Designing for inclusivity
Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) was an integral part of the briefing and assessment process.
Accomodation
The most significant decision made was that all 60 bedrooms should be a larger, accessible size. This added significantly to the area, and therefore cost of the building. Other decisions included the number of hoist rooms provided at the centre and the inclusion of two specialist changing rooms to meet the PAMIS Changing Places model.
Accessibility
SDS worked with sportscotland to ensure the designs were improved to meet the demands of accessibility. For example, the main reception was moved from Level 0 to Level 1 (off the main car park to rear) under their advice. SDS continues to be involved in the centre and undertook an accessibility audit and training of the centre staff.
Preparing the brief - identifying best practice
sportscotland also met with Glasgow Warriors professional rugby team and its colleagues at the sportscotland Institute of Sport to determine the scope and specification of the strength and conditioning requirements for the fitness suite.
The EIS in Sheffield and Oriam and Scotland’s Sports Performance Centre at Heriot-Watt University were visited to look at the size and specification of the sports spaces.
Sportscotland visited the Help for Heroes facility at Tedworth House to review the strength and conditioning area and determine the right equipment for disabled users.
It also spent time at Lilleshall National Sports and Conferencing Centre to understand how the venue balances its sport and meeting facilities while also being open to the public for sports facilities.
A world class centre for all - the elite, the community & disabled users
Reiach & Hall’s architectural response to the brief takes full advantage of the mature landscape setting. The glazed façade of the new centre, which offers views inside on the approach to the building, was a well received feature of the design proposals.
It is an ideal retreat for squad training, development and events. It includes floodlit all-weather surfaces, sixty en-suite twin bedrooms capable of hosting two wheelchairs users at a time, a full catering provision which includes a 200 person capacity dining hall, bar and cafe and fully equipped meeting rooms equipped with high speed wifi and AV equipment.
Secure access to all of the floors in the accommodation block ensures the safety of younger groups and the venue also benefits from 24 hour security.
In addition it has:
Some of the inclusive features for disabled users include:
Meeting community needs
Although the main purpose of the centre is to give elite athletes a place to stay and train, it aims to cater for school groups, clubs and governing bodies of sport for residential stays and sports programmes.
Unusually for a national centre of this kind, people don't have to stay at the centre to access the facilities. The local community can join the fitness suite, attend fitness classes and hire the sports halls and pitches for personal use.
The centre has a wide and varied community programme designed to keep people of all ages active. These include a gymnastics programme which hosts more than 600 children each week, from ages 10 months to 17 years old; and a wide range of fitness classes to complement the fitness suite which while equipped for elite athletes can be used by everyone.
Grace’s sign
The centre is one of the first sports sites in the UK to display ‘Grace’s Sign’, a take on bathroom signage to remind people that not all disabilities are visible at first glance. The sign was designed by 11-year-old Grace Warnock who has Crohn’s Disease and has found it difficult in the past having to justify why she needs to use a disabled toilet. The venue also offers non-gender specific bathroom facilities to allow people to use the facilities they feel comfortable with.
With it's world class facilities and specially trained staff, the National Sports Training Centre, Inverclyde allows users at all levels of physical and sensory ability to participate and progress in sport.
All-round sports experience
The National Sports Training Centre Inverclyde is part of the trust company of sportscotland. The trust company operates three national centres offering a different experience.
All three national centres work together to provide the highest quality provision to customers from across the world.
