The Balloch Music Centre project is designed for Sistema Scotland, a charity organisation whose aim is to transform lives through music. Their teams provide an intensive orchestral programme for school-age children and young people. Therefore, the main components of the Balloch Music Centre project are :
1. The residential retreat; a building designed for teachers, carers and children to find a place of quietness and meditation where they can bond together through playing music; cooking, learning, and sleeping.
2. The performance hall; a building designed for them to perform together in front of an audience; where their talent can be shared, noticed and acknowledged by other people.
The project’s location is the picturesque Balloch, a city embraced by the richness of nature and the Loch Lomond, surrounded by the Highlands and a vast area of deciduous trees.
The landscape contributes to the poetic of placemaking with its historical aspects, thus by going back to origins, Balloch in Gaelic means “village on the loch” and Loch Lomond in Scottish Gaelic is Loch Laomainn – “Lake of the Elms”; thus, the Music Centre’s design has grown around the idea of sitting next to the loch, around the elm trees.
The fascinating landscape of Balloch must be environmentally protected, hence the focus of this project is about implementing an approach towards net zero-carbon design.
To go as low as possible with the carbon emissions both buildings follow passive solar principles and use renewable energy.