Women’s National Facility, Cornton Vale, Stirling

Client: Morrison Construction Scotland appointed by Scottish Prison Service

Architect: Holmes Miller

Project value: £54m

Project team: David Chapman, Nicola Symington, Danny Robinson, Dale Porteous

Due to open in summer 2023, the new Women’s National Facility has been commissioned to replace the former HMP & YOI Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only women’s prison. The design by Architects Holmes Miller supports the Scottish Prison Service’s progressive approach for women’s reinsertion in the community after their release from the facility.

The specialist facilities comprise a Family Visitor Centre, Staff Facilities, Central Hub Building, Assessment Centre, Accommodation Buildings to include mother and baby provisions, amongst other buildings and areas designed to support inmates and staff.

RMP consultants were involved in the design stages of the project to ensure that suitable internal and external amenity, teaching, learning and rehabilitation environments are provided in terms of ambient noise levels, sound insulation and reverberation and building services within the aforementioned buildings.

In the last few months, RMP were also instructed to undertake acoustic completion testing of the different Houseblocks and shared areas of the facility. Surveys of the sound insulation of walls separating spaces, reverberation times and internal ambient noise levels were undertaken to demonstrate compliance with the project criteria.

Image courtesy of Morrison Construction.