The transformation of Wigan Civic

How we turned a once old fashioned brutalist civic centre into a unique, sustainable location with local business development at the core.

As the Principle Contractors on the project, working alongside Capital & Centric and Wigan Council, here is our insight into Civic’s year long transformation.

Background

Our works to Wigan Civic started back in 2024, taking the run down brutalist building and refurbishing it to create a new modern office space for co working and businesses. The space also contains additional amenities to encourage more locals into the space and create a central hub in Wigan. Wigan Council were keen to inspire economic growth in the area, targeting local businesses and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Taking the brief and working on the design, we encountered some challenges with details along the way but carefully ironed these out to ensure the output matched the inspiration. Our team worked long and hard with the talented architects and designers on the jobs to align the vision.

Some of the main construction works completed on the building included underground drainage, adding a new roof to the space plus various structural repairs. We completed a full strip out of the project and installed new lifts for accessibility. There was a large landscaping package completed to meet the scheme’s sustainable goals, and the entire car park was resurfaced and designed.

Before

The Vision

Now

Sustainability

Sustainability was at the core of Wigan Civic with a requirement to achieve BREEAM Excellent, Considerate Constructors Scheme Excellent and an EPC A rating. Not an easy feat!

To achieve this we made careful considerations to ensure all practices were in line with the requirements of the vital accreditations. Every decision such as Site Staff & contractor selection, methodology and material selection were carefully considered to reduce the scheme footprint. We followed a site waste management plan with the target to minimise waste, our strategy was for 90% of the site waste to be reused or recycled.

We imposed an initiative to encourage individuals to report their travel data to help us monitor the carbon emissions used on commutes to and from site. Using a carbon assessment tracker to track the quantities of materials procured, all environmental product declarations used on the project and site emissions data including encouraging off-site manufacturing to reduce the need for Heavy Transport. A key was also buying local materials and equipment, with items like the concrete being supplied only 2.5 miles away from site! This also included using local labour and sub contractors to minimise their mileage.

Key moments

Being a part of a major scheme came with challenges but these were majorly outweighed by some incredible moments throughout the project. There is nothing like seeing your hard work come together.

The café and atrium were focal points of the scheme, they are the first space you walk into as you enter the building. Seeing these take shape and become such a welcoming and interesting space was very memorable. Additionally, despite us now entering the winter months, the transformation of the roof garden came together beautifully towards the last few weeks of the project and is a key part of the sustainability and outdoor connection of the design.

Lee, the Contracts Manager on the project said “it was a very proud moment to see the high quality finish of the project, a representation of all the hard work that has gone into creating a space that went above and beyond client expectation.” Including the achievement of CCS, BREEAM, EPC A and exceeding all our carbon targets, local labour and apprenticeship goals.

A brilliant scheme to be involved with, maintaining the brutalist features whilst creating a sustainably driven building, central to the growth and development of Wigan. Thanks to everyone we worked with, from the council to the client and incredible contractors involved.

If you would like to see more images of the project, take a look at our website case study https://www.workspacedesign.co.uk/our-work/wigan-civic/ and if you have a project you would like us to help with, please contact sales@workspacedesign.co.uk, we would love to help.