Founded in 1915, Scottish War Blinded – the charity set up to help rehabilitate blinded soldiers – may seem an anachronism from the past, but sadly the UK’s more recent overseas military involvements have meant its work is required as much today as it was when it first set out to combat one of the enduring consequences of the first world war.

The charity’s existing premises are set in the grounds of the former Linburn House, some 10 miles west of Edinburgh and have grown over the years to provide housing, workshops and recreational facilities. The latest addition replaces  accommodation dating from the 1950s.

The new £2.6m, 750m² day care centre is tucked away behind a woodland screen and largely invisible from the A71 that passes through the village of Wilkieston. Indeed, it is only by turning into what might be described as the Scottish War Blinded campus does the visitor discover the new timber-clad facility nestled amongst the trees and at one with its surrounding landscape. The project itself appears quite simple – a single-storey, structure with a deeply-eaved roof that rises and falls in deference to the building’s curved walls and the hierarchy of the accommodation within.

Design inspiration
The architects – Glasgow-based Page\Park who won the commission in a competition organised by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland – attribute the undulating external skin to a carved Chinese celestial dragon sculpture that was housed in the previous facility, or at least to the reinterpretation of its form in their design, but in truth this is a practice that seems to delight in applying unusual geometrical timber solutions to its projects and in solving the technical challenges that come with that territory.

Most obvious amongst the precedents is the headquarters of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park,  with its curving plan, large section timber frame and external larch cladding, a bigger and – in terms of timber engineering – considerably more sophisticated edifice than the Linburn Centre but which draws upon more traditional sources for its exterior image.

Equally, the practice’s design for Maggie’s Highlands, the cancer caring centre at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, was built using platform timber frame but wholly reconfigured from its very conventional, domestic construction roots to provide an astonishingly complex and curvaceous structural form.

The Linburn Centre brings together some of the experience gained from each of these projects although, sadly, its main structural frame eschews both the green Douglas fir portals of the Loch Lomond building or the small section softwood framing used at the Maggie Centre in favour of steel portal frames, an engineering decision in response to the design complexity of the curving, twisting, shallow roof plane required here.

Interestingly, the Linburn Centre has been constructed almost in parallel with a new visitor centre at Rosslyn Chapel (of which more in a future feature) where Page\Park Architects have gone to the opposite end of the timber spectrum – perhaps in compensation for not having a primary frame of timber in this building – and have produced one of the most original green timber structures yet seen in the UK.

The cantilevered eaves follow the curve of the building Andrew Lee

Exterior facade
But back to the Linburn Centre. Its exterior facade, as already intimated, comprises full height window/door units alternating with vertical panels of recess jointed Scotlarch [the registered trade name for Russwood Ltd’s selected heartwood of Scottish-grown European larch] cladding, the individual elements of the latter all of continuous length. This shows something of the practice’s long experience in using timber, the specification decision obviating the need for any horizontal joints in the 140mm-wide vertical cladding members.

In the same vein, the finished thickness of each piece of cladding timber is marginally greater than one might generally find in a specification for European larch (ie 25mm here rather than the usual 20mm), recognition of the very particular properties of Scottish-grown larch and the performance benefits to be gained from the extra few millimetres depth. Such concern for detail does mean more effort from the sawmiller to source logs capable of delivering the required grade, but the qualitative results speak for themselves.

As a final finish, the fire retardant-impregnated cladding boards have been given three coats of Sikkens Cetol BL21 plus, a client requirement that primarily aims to delay the normal weathering process but which has contributed to the building’s subtle exterior colouring.

Structural frame
The structural frame within the Linburn Centre’s curving walls is formed from JJI-Joists used vertically. Set at 450mm centres, these 300mm studs not only enable the building’s smooth internal and external curves to be effected smoothly, they are deep enough to completely conceal the steel portal frames supporting the roof. The JJI-joists have the added advantages of being easy and quick to install and, in this instance, to provide the depth needed to accommodate the 200mm of Thermafleece insulation that is part of the Linburn’s Centre’s minimal energy usage strategy.

Internally, oak veneer finishes line the inner corridor wall and emphasise the pod-like forms that distinguish the Linburn Centre’s various spaces, a design decision that counterpoises the simple plastered surfaces of the inner faces of the external walls, whilst providing a very understated tactile orientation device for the building’s users.

Outside again, the south-east facing Scottish larch deck echoes the continuous curve of the roof except where the gym and therapy rooms have been drawn back in the plan to provide a covered terrace. This is the point at which the decision to use steel for the building’s primary structural framing is made manifest – maintaining the slim curve of the eaves in this area without obstructive external columns in support has required a substantial cantilever that would perhaps have been more difficult – although not impossible – to achieve with timber.

There are, of course, many reasons why a building form and structure that seems eminently suited to being designed entirely in timber is not and a hybrid steel and timber solution employed instead. In this instance, the end result eschews the need for such debate – the Linburn Centre is unquestionably a building in which timber has been used with confidence and to considerable success.

● The Wood Studio, is one of four specialist research centres within Edinburgh Napier University’s Forest Products Research Institute.

Oak veneer finishes line the corridor walls; other surfaces are plastered Andrew Lee

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