The Arncliffe Centre

Retrofit and extension vision for community and sports centre

The Arncliffe Centre is a retrofit and extension scheme of an existing community centre to enable an expanded range of activities, for the community of Halewood, which was developed to RIBA Stage 3.

Initially, HSA were invited to review the entrance experience, however a strategic review of how the building was used identified there were more fundamental problems that needed to be addressed. HSA identified funding to support Halewood Town council in exploring the overall sustainability of the building to meet a brief developed as a result of input from staff, building users and the wider community of Halewood.

The new entrance and café offer a safe place to meet friends and get reasonably priced or free healthy food and drinks. There is also an external covered terrace for when the building is open, which facilitates better indoor/outdoor provision and monitoring. The inclusion of several separate meeting spaces allows for flexible uses from education to confidential meetings. Simple changes such as centralising the toilets, and providing separate entrances and circulation between the two main function spaces will mean that multiple activities can happen concurrently.

We successfully achieved the 2025 targets from the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge target metrics for non-domestic buildings at the end of Stage 3, achieving a DEC rating of B (<110), a significant improvement from the existing F rating.

HSA worked alongside PlacEd to engage the local community of Halewood, and the existing building users, in the design, planning and development of the Arncliffe proposal. As a result of the engagement feedback, Halewood Town Council developed a Youth Council to mirror the work of the full council and advocate on behalf of young people across the township. Separate workshop sessions were undertaken with this group who provided feedback on the final design ideas.