Atlas Women's Centre
Tate Stevenson Architects Ltd were commissioned by Atlas Women's Centre in Lisburn to remodel their existing premises in Bachelors Walk, Lisburn following a successful public procurement process. The Altas Centre provides adult training services as well as a community orientated café open to the public. The commission involved extensive reordering of the existing building to make all floors and services accessible, as well as rooftop extension for a new community garden.
The money provided for the project was awarded by Space & Place, from the £15 million Big Lottery funded capital grants programme which seeks to connect people and communities together by making use of underused or difficult space.
The old building was taken back to structure and the internals were reconfigured to make use of natural light provided by new window openings. Old dreary teaching rooms were remodelled with movable partitions to provide flexible meeting and training spaces, giving them a modern and airy feel.
The bulk of the works comprised of adding a light weight, highly insulated, SIPs panel structure clad with zinc to the second floor to provide additional teaching space and an external sensory rooftop garden. This unique construction methodology derived from the need to reduce congestion from the restricted sole access point on the busy Bachelors Walk and meant that mobile site cranage was only required for a limited period during the works.
A full 8 person passenger lift was installed allowing full disabled access to this new upper floor and the existing issue of no outdoor play space was remedied by remodelling the existing crèche within its current footprint.
Following a publicly advertised procurement and contractor assessment process the onsite construction period was 6 months with the project successfully completed on time and within agreed budget. In July 2018 Atlas resumed their services in the refurbished premises and enjoyed their status of having Lisburn’s first roof top garden space designed to complement their important therapy works.