Lisburn Road Agapé Centre
The Agapé Centre Belfast situated on the Lisburn Road is a project initiated by Belfast South Methodist Church to establish a community partnership networking centre providing a visible, co-ordinating focal point for a range of voluntary and community services available to the diverse local population of south Belfast. The centre provides a range of modern facilities, including conference and seminar rooms equipped with the latest digital technologies and kitchen facilities, to a variety of users, including those who may be in need of support from the community, and also those who wish to partake in recreational activities provided by the new facilities.
This 3-storey building with feature tower was constructed on the site of a previous church building. The Belfast South Methodist Church, who were commissioning the building, wished to make it as accessible to the public as possible and to achieve this, the level of the site was significantly lowered in order to permit level access from the adjacent public footpath. This lower level was facilitated with a secant piled retaining wall constructed to the north, east and south boundaries of the site.
The new building was formed from a braced steel frame with precast concrete hollowcore floor units. The foundations were of traditional pad and strip construction with ground bearing ground floor slabs. Due to the restricted space on site, off-site prefabrication of elements played a key part in the successful delivery of this project.