Melrose Football Club

LOCATION: Melrose, Scottish Borders

CLIENT: Melrose Football Club

The Vision

Melrose Football Club was established in 1995, by a group of ‘footballing’ parents who identified the need to set up arrangements that would provide football training, development and match play for local youth. The primary aim was to provide boys and girls with the opportunity to enjoy playing football in a safe and friendly environment.

The club now has over 300 registered players, whilst the growth in girl’s and women’s football has been particularly strong.  This growth, while welcome, has placed the existing facilities under severe pressure with  the current arrangement in the Engine Room building at Gibson Park, Melrose all crammed into a small footprint that is not fit for purpose.  In particular, the Club lacks safe, secure and private changing facilities for its girl’s and women’s teams.

CSY were appointed by the club to restore and adapt the Engine Room building and provide new, compliant facilities for club and community use.  Sitting within the Melrose Conservation Area, the Engine Room is a modest, historic building constructed in 1901 to house the horse-drawn fire engine that served Melrose.

The Solution

CSY’s ongoing work with Melrose Football Club will result in not only the restoration and community use of a key heritage building but the construction of a contemporary sporting facility that supports a much loved local initiative which enhances its parkland setting and the wider context of the Melrose Conservation Area.

The extension is located to the rear of the Engine Room and is therefore set well back from the front façade, with the roof line set below the existing eaves line. The extension sits out from the existing building line yet remains deferential through the carefully scaled proportions and materiality of the proposed glazing at the new entranceway, providing clear delineation between existing and contemporary.

The material palette has been carefully considered to be contemporary yet to remain respectful, particularly in terms of weathering, to the high-quality historic material palette of stonework, slate and timber. It is proposed to clad the extension in vertical, timber boards that will weather naturally to compliment the patina and tone of the existing sandstone and volcanic agglomerate with sandstone pavers, matching in tone and colour, will be used for the external landscaping. A sedum roof offers ecological advantages and goes someway to replacing the existing parkland that is lost due to the building footprint.

The Conclusion

CSY’s proposals for Melrose Football Club demonstrate how contemporary design proposals can enhance both the immediate and wider historic context, when carefully considered, to allow a valuable community resource to grow and respond to positive change.