About the Project
Compass is a ground-breaking project which aims to transform a former school campus into a centre demonstrating practical solutions for healthy, sustainable lifestyles.
The Compass project aims to develop inclusive spaces that will serve and engage the local and wider community in Aberdeen City & Shire. This versatile site, rich in natural beauty and historic value, offers unique opportunities to bring about initiatives which focus on health and sustainability.
Compass is envisaged as a place where the ethos and practices successfully pioneered for those with learning disabilities by the North-East Camphill organisations will be translated to benefit all who want to improve their health, maintain their wellbeing or explore a more sustainable lifestyle.
Compass aims to showcase:
Sustainable Building Practices
Compass will focus on sustainable building practices with conservation of the listed main building & sensitive repurposing of others.
Integrated, Creative Health & Education Approach
The project will demonstrate an integrated, creative health & education approach, supported by the natural & built environment. This person-centred approach will form the basis of its social prescribing and employability services.
Sustainable Social Enterprise Projects
Compass aims to provide space for sustainable social enterprise projects serving the local community and involving those with learning disabilities and other additional support needs.
Organic / Biodynamic Land Use
The outdoor areas showcase organic/biodynamic land use with pesticide-free food production, demonstration growing plots, orchard, composting, bee-keeping, wild flower areas and biodiverse woodland management.
Repair, Reuse & Recycle Practices
Compass also employs repair, reuse & recycle practices minimising waste and encouraging sustainability.
Our Aims
Compass is envisaged as a place where socially and environmentally sustainable solutions can be established to meet the specific challenges of our times.
Our Key Principles
Key principles will include fostering a circular economy, organic/biodynamic land use and therapeutic interventions for resilience building and well-being.
We aim to:
- keep the Craigton Road site as an asset for the local community
- restore and transform the site in a sustainable manner
- develop meaningful, self-financing projects that fit with the ethos of healthy, sustainable living.
Interested?
If you are interested in finding out more about Compass, have knowledge or skills that might be helpful or want to volunteer to help us, get in touch.
We’d love to hear from you!
About the Site
Compass occupies an elevated south-facing position with a commanding view across the Dee Valley and the suburb of Cults Aberdeen.
The 1.66 hectare / 4.1 acre site on Craigton Road includes 5 buildings (some to be refurbished) along with garden area and mixed woodland. The buildings are:
- Former Sports Building: now newly refurbished as North Point – a multi-purpose building
- Former Kindergarten
- Former Science Building
- Main building [listed]:
former Aberdeen Convalescent Hospital [1897] and school - Former Primary School Building
Find out more about our plans for the buildings here.
Site History:
The Compass site is owned by Camphill Estates a charity and not for profit limited company. Prior to ownership by CRSE, the site was owned by Aberdeen Waldorf School (AWS) and before that, the Aberdeen American School (now International School Aberdeen), but had originally been built as a convalescent hospital (1897). As such the main building is a listed building [grade C] of historic value.
The main building pictured above was used to support the recovery of post-operative patients from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. With space for 29 patients and live-in nursing staff, the building was financed by the sale of Lochhead (the former convalescent hospital in the centre of Aberdeen) and a £5000 gift from trustees of the late Mr John Gray Chalmers of Banchory (Aberdeen P&J, 1895). In 1948, the site became part of the NHS before closure in 1964 and subsequent sale in 1969.
From 1972 – 1996, the Aberdeen American School used the space as its campus and built three further buildings [primary school building, science block and sports hall]. AWS took over the site in 1996 as its campus and built a modern nursery block in 2010. CRSE purchased the site from AWS in 2006 bringing it into the Camphill portfolio.
With the main building remaining largely unaltered, its current state gives an exceptional insight into the history of 19th century healthcare in the North East. Further details can be found on the British Listed Buildings site.
Why did Camphill Wellbeing Trust take the site on?
With the closure of the Aberdeen Waldorf School as an educational facility in 2014, the site lay vacant for over 6 years and suffered from deterioration and vandalization.
Keen not to lose the potential of this naturally beautiful and historic site, Camphill Wellbeing Trust (CWT) took on a lease from Camphill Estates in December 2020 to host Compass as a community-based project focusing on healthy, sustainable living.
