Page\Park completes lantern-roofed wellbeing hub at Fettes College

Scottish studio Page\Park has completed The Allardice Centre, a 469-square-metre health and wellbeing hub for Fettes College in Edinburgh, crowned with a bronze, lantern-like roof.

The single-storey building, named after the independent day and boarding school's alumnus David Allardice, consolidates medical and pastoral care services in a fully accessible structure set into a wooded plot.

According to Page\Park, the design draws on the late Allardice's interest in Eastern philosophy — specifically the elemental philosophy of Wuxing — which produced a material palette of timber, stone and metal.

"Allardice spent much of his working life in East Asia, and was drawn to ancient Chinese philosophy and the five essential elements, fire, water, wood, metal and earth," the studio told Dezeen.

"This narrative directly influenced the design, materiality and construction approach, which can be seen through the strata-like stone cladding, burnt bronze metal roof, and connection to the outside," it added.

What materials went into the building?

The structure uses Scots-grown timber. Darney stone, quarried roughly 75 kilometres away, forms the external load-bearing cladding, while a bronze roof provides the contrast.

"The Darney stone chosen for the project was quarried only 75 kilometres away, and had fantastic mineral veins through it which paired neatly with the varying course sizes, leaning into the earth element theme, and giving a sense of permanence," the studio said.

Inside, white walls foreground the exposed glued-laminated timber (glulam) structure, engineered with Scottish firm Will Rudd. Treatment rooms use leaf-print and green fabrics that connect visually to the surrounding landscape, developed by Harrison Stevens.

"We were interested in the didactic implications of exposing the glulam timber frame, offering an insight into how the building was crafted, celebrating its sustainability principles and the elemental philosophy underpinning the design," the studio said.

How does daylight reach a deep plan?

The centre organises an open wellbeing hub at its core, wrapped by individual treatment and counselling rooms overlooking the woodland. A mono-pitched, lantern-like roof creates a ring of clerestory windows framed by the glulam structure.

The deep plan was not the designers' first choice — it was forced by the site.

"Fitting the full brief for both medical and pastoral functions into this constrained site, while avoiding level changes to maximise accessibility, forced the plan to be quite deep," the studio explained.

"Bringing natural light into this deep plan therefore became a challenge. To resolve this, the glulam structure extends and branches out at high level to reveal a triple-glazed clerestory lantern formed of timber curtain walling," it added.

The studio claims sustainability and craft as guiding principles, evidenced by the exposed frame and local sourcing; the source does not state any certification or energy performance figures to verify the sustainability claim beyond material choices.

Page\Park recently completed a teaching building for the University of Stirling, shortlisted for the 2025 RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award. The Allardice Centre extends that portfolio into healthcare typology, and its exposed-timber, locally sourced model signals where the practice is heading next.