Designing a support centre for the Royal British Legion

Towards the end of 2020 – a tough and dragged-out year for most – a promising opportunity presented itself for a team of young, talented, design-orientated individuals. This opportunity was to create an exciting and bespoke concept for the Royal British Legions' Battle Back Centre in the Midlands, which aims to support wounded and injured service personnel returning from war. The Centre's main objectives are to assist service personnel in returning to civilian life; this can mean teaching new skills or simply help carry out typical day-to-day tasks. 

As a result, a meeting was set up with Tahira Hamid, Senior lecturer in The School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing at Leeds Beckett University, where the possibility of helping the Royal British Legion with the scheme was proposed. Tahira wasted no time and formed a 12-person strong design team, mainly consisting of Leeds Beckett alumni, all-in full-time work to tackle the project head-on. 

The client provided a general brief of required facilities but was not overly restrictive on design or materials, allowing the team's creative minds to run wild in bringing a suitable design forward. Many aspects needed to be considered for the Battle Back Centre to succeed. Namely the fragile state of mind some of the users would be in, having just returned to civilian life. This was vitally important when considering the design and materials used for the building, ensuring the development provided a soft and safe feel to its users. 
 
The team got to work researching conceptual inspiration and how best to implement the potential shape of the building with the functionality of its intended day-to-day use and positioning on site. Having created numerous concepts, the team whittled them down to their favourite three and presented them to the clients. 

The chosen concept to move forward was a modern, simplistic two-storey design, with two roof terraces and large floor-to-ceiling glazing providing extensive views of the outdoor sports facilities while allowing plenty of natural light. The stacked cladded box design also incorporated a large canopy to provide sheltered space for outdoor seating, with a living green wall to the side of the main entrance. Positioning the building was simple for the team – pushed to the top of the site, with the main features of the building south-facing providing outdoor seating, two first-floor terraces and extensive glazing with plenty of sunlight. 
 
As the design progressed and after several meetings with the client, it was clear to see the potential to expand further the facilities stated in the brief. This would allow the Battle Back Centre to engage with a wider range of users and offer a separate income. This resulted in the expansion of the learning facilities as well as providing conference space and a larger café / restaurant area. After a winding road, the design was finally complete and presented to The Royal British Legion, who were blown away.

Joshua Molesworth graduated from BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology at Leeds Beckett in 2017 and was joint Project Leader on the design team. He said: “Working alongside The Royal British Legion to develop ideas for The Battle Back Centre into a concept was nothing but a joy to be part of.

The project was put forward to the board of directors and trustees to gain funding to be built, and after a nerve-racking wait, successfully aided The Royal British Legion in securing funding for the new build.

Tahira Hamid, Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and joint Project Leader for the Battle Back Centre Design Team, said: "In the collaborative journey of designing the Royal British Legion's new Battle Back Centre, our dedicated team harnessed these elements while working online, transforming not merely a structure but a sanctuary for healing and growth.

"Contributing our creativity and technical expertise to the Royal British Legion's Battle Back Centre project was an honour, and we take pride in helping bring them closer to realising their new building."

The full design team consisted of:

Tahira Hamid
Josh Molesworth
Heidi Roberts
Daksh Agrawal
Wiyada Imeson
Harmeet Jhagra
Chris Roberts
Aiden Phillips-Whalley
Naomi Takeuchi
Barrie Smith
Rochila Kundu
Ross Booth

You can see a walkthrough of the Battle Back Centre here.