PAISLEY CENTRAL LIBRARY, RENFREWSHIRE

Set within a challenging historic building at 22 High Street, Paisley, the Paisley Central Library is a new and dynamic community-focussed central library and one of several new destinations that are reinvigorating Renfrewshire’s largest town.

Led by CCG (Scotland) on behalf of Renfrewshire Council with hub West Scotland, the learning hub forms a major part investment to improve infrastructure in Paisley and bring people back to the town centre. Undertaken alongside the restoration of Paisley Town Hall, museum and arts centre, it’s high street location ensures that it is truly a ‘public library’ and will provide valuable resources for people of all age groups operated by the Council’s culture and leisure trust, Oneren.

Externally, the design aimed to ensure differentiation from the adjacent commercial units, and to signify this building as a destination. The re-design of the 2 storey ‘shop frontage’ strives to be distinct and iconic, achieved by a grid of sculptural, bent metal fins that sit in front of the curtain wall glazing system and have a folded form to echo the bending of a piece of paper to make an origami form or mark the place in a book.

Internally, the complex building alterations create a welcoming, varied and light interior environment. n urban foyer accessed from the High Street leads to secret rooms for children to play within and explore within the children’s library. A living room on the 1st floor houses the main library collection and leads to events rooms for meetings and performances. The 2nd floor reading room provides a quiet environment and leads to the study room gallery and an outdoor room providing an external, elevated garden.

In addition to the extensive lending book stock, the building will provide excellent IT facilities including Wi-Fi and charging points to all areas, a dedicated IT room and numerous workbenches, tables, desks and nooks, distributed throughout, providing a range of spaces to access the PCs provided or to set up personal laptops.

CCG Group member Arc-Tech (Scotland) also supported the delivery of the project with a turnkey M&E Services package, both of whom helped deliver a range of community benefit initiatives during the course of the programme including four jobs, four work placements and two trade apprenticeships for Paisley community members whilst a £3000 donation has supported locally-based organisations.

The Learning Hub was designed by Collective Architecture and was officially opened in late-2023.

Client:
Renfrewshire Council

Value:
£7m

Awards: