Located in the centre of Grangemouth, the project transforms disused La Scala into a conservation centre and community healthcare facility, joined by a shared garden. In response to industrial pollution and the town’s loss of vitality through economic decline and demographic ageing, the intervention offers a place for collective support and renewal.
At the heart of the project is an anatomy of misplacement -- a spatial narrative composed through deliberate offsets, quiet misalignments, and moments of tension between past and present, enclosure and openness. These in-between conditions shape how spaces are encountered and remembered. The original masonry façade and roof trusses are retained as anchors of memory. Around them, eleven distinct volumes are arranged, each assuming a specific narrative role: preservation, encounter, or regeneration.
Circulation is choreographed through a sequence of grounded programmatic spaces and elevated bridges and platforms for retreat and observation. A translucent greenhouse shell encloses the site, creating a tempered microclimate while integrating diverse uses. The garden connects the archive, healthcare, and public life, supporting biodiversity through native species, edible planting, and passive water systems. Rather than restoring a singular past, the design proposes layered cohabitation -- social, ecological, and temporal.
