Community Architecture
Gail Halvorsen has been a director of Gorebridge Community Development Trust (GCDT), a community owned and managed charity which promotes the sustainable regeneration of Gorebridge, Midlothian since 2007. She advises GCDT on all architectural projects which currently include:
A £2.2m community centre project that will include a community café, conference facilities, offices and a heritage centre. The project's main funders are the Big Lottery Fund and Coalfields Regeneration Trust. GCDT is committed to sustainable design and is aiming to make the Hub a zero-energy building. The trust have commissioned Irons Foulner, mechanical and electrical engineers, to examine the potential of various sources of renewable energy.
Halvorsen Architects and Stephen Ferrar, a structural engineer at David Narro Associates, have designed a timber footbridge over Gore Water to complete the seven mile Gorebridge Circular Walk. The Bridge has been designed so that all its components can be man-handled down the steep wooded banks of Gore Glen and assembled on site.
At the instigation of the Scottish Government, GCDT and Midlothian Community Planning Partnership are working on a Locality Plan for Gorebridge. The plan will outline the developments and improvements that local residents would like to see in their town. GCDT and MCPP are collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders (including NHS, police and fire services and social workers). Halvorsen Architects has carried out various studies on Gorebridge including ones on housing, green and urban spaces and transport.
Halvorsen Architects has also drawn up sketch proposals for a new town centre around the proposed £2.2m Community Hub.
Halvorsen Architects is acting architect for the preservation of Stobs Gunpowder Mill (the earliest large scale gunpowder mill in Scotland built in 1794). This will include restoring the lade system, a series of interpretation panels and, hopefully, an education/interpretation centre to be partly powered by reinstating one of the 17 original water wheels.
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