STONEHENGE VISITOR CENTRE BY DENTON CORKER MARSHALL

Located 1.5 miles to the west of the stone circle at Airman’s Corner, just within the World Heritage Site but out of sight of the monument, the new visitor centre is designed with a light touch on the landscape – a low key building sensitive to its environment.

Sited within the rolling landforms of Salisbury Plain, the design consists of a subtle group of simple enclosures resting on a limestone platform, all sheltered by a fine, perforated, undulating canopy. Three pods, finished in different materials, provide the principal accommodation. The largest, clad in sweet chestnut timber, houses the museum displays and service facilities. The second largest, clad in glass, houses the educational base, a stylish café and retail facilities.

Located between these is the third, by far the smallest and clad in zinc, which provides ticketing and guide facilities. Oversailing them all, and resting on 211 irregularly placed sloping columns, is a steel canopy clad on the underside with zinc metal panels and shaped with a complex geometry reflecting the local landforms. Local, recyclable and renewable materials have been used wherever possible.

The material palette includes locally grown sweet chestnut timber cladding and Salisbury limestone. The new building allows Stonehenge to have dedicated facilities on site for education and interpretation for the first time, with museum-quality exhibits that tell the story of the 5,000 year- old monument. From the new centre, visitors can either walk to the monument or take a ten-minute shuttle ride. During the trip the henge emerges slowly over the horizon to the East.

Sustainable Design

The building is sensitively designed to sit lightly in the landscape. Reversibility – the ability to return the site to its current state – was a fundamental design concept. The modern construction, using slender steel columns and lightweight framed walls, and semi-external spaces allow the depth of foundations to be minimised.

Other green features include:

- An open loop ground source heating system that pumps underground water through a unit to extract/inject heat energy. This enables the building to be heated and provides some cooling without the need for fossil fuels.

- Fully insulated cavity walls – the timber pod is constructed of structurally insulated panels (SIPS), which enables efficiencies in construction whilst minimising material waste and ensuring the building is well insulated.

- Mixed mode ventilation – the building will be naturally ventilated whenever external conditions allow, switching to an efficient mechanical ventilation system that enables the heat energy in the exhaust air to be ‘recovered’ and transferred to the supply air, thereby reducing the load on the heating plant and saving energy.

- “Grey water”, including rainwater collected from the roof of the building, will be used for the bulk of water required at the visitor centre, e.g. for flushing toilets. Other water – e.g. for drinking – will be drawn from the aquifer, a local and renewable resource.

- The facilities will use on-site water treatment for sustainability and to avoid intrusive trenching for connections to water and sewer mains.

Location: Stonehenge, UK

Architects: Denton Corker Marshall

Project Associate: Angela Dapper

Structural Engineers: Sinclair Knight Merz

M&E Consultant: Norman Disney Young

Quantity Surveyor: Firmingers

Planning Supervisor: Chris Blandford Associates

Landscape Architects: Chris Blandford Associates

Exhibition Designers: Haley Sharpe Design

Project Managers: Gardiner + Theobald

Steelwork contractor: S H Structures

Main contractor: Vinci Construction

Cost: £ 27M

Year: 2013

Client: English Heritage

Photographs: Peter Cook

CHAPEL OF SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT BY SIMPSON & BROWN ARCHITECTS

Built for the University Chaplaincy and friary for The Order of Preachers this new chapel is situated on George Square at the University of Edinburgh in the garden of one of the townhouses, replacing the old chapel which was located on the upper floor of the adjoining townhouses.

 

The new garden chapel not only provides a space for peace and worship, but also increases capacity and improves accessibility. A new access was created from Middle Meadow Walk, and, along with the siting, form and appearance of the building, the chapel is announced to the many that use this popular route.

The choice of materials and building form were important factors in the design of the building, chosen to achieve the peaceful space required of a chapel, and to connect it to its natural setting of the garden and Meadows beyond.

Four tree-like Corten Steel columns support a curved, oak-lined timber roof over the altar and sanctuary spaces. A thick masonry wall, constructed out of large clay blocks clad with sandstone, interprets the historic boundary between the townhouses and provides a solid mass and weight to the building form.

Angled windows are formed within this wall to allow light in and also to maintain the focus towards the sanctuary, providing only oblique views of the garden.  

A combination of clerestory glazing, ventilator windows and a lightwell with opening rooflights provides both natural light and ventilation. Daylight is introduced by mirrors and filtered through continuous oak slats along the length of the chapel.

The west wall behind the sanctuary is glazed and connects the chapel with the garden and the changing seasons, which plays an important part in the worship calendar.

The external finish on the roof is sedum, again connecting the building to its garden setting, and minimising its visual impact from above.

Location: George Square, Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, UK

Architects: Simpson & Brown

Collaborators: George Berry & Partners

Structural Engineer: Elliott & Company
Services Engineer: Irons Foulner
Year: 2013

Client: The Dominican Council as Trustees of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

Photographs: Chris Humphreys

THE WINNERS FOR LONDON CINEMA CHALLENGE

The challenge of the competition is to design a cinema, located on Newman Street in central London.

 

First prize: Cine'stival by Etienne Fabre and Jean-Emmanuel David

Project description: "Cine'stival provides an insightful take on the state of cinema today. Anchored in research, the proposal offers a beautifully visualized response to the issue at hand. By inviting the public to fully participate in all aspects of the cinematic experience, the mix of program reinforces the proposal's premise, with the architectural space corresponding appropriately.

As a venue dedicated to promoting independent movies and at the same time inviting the general public to take part in Q&A's and lectures, Cine'stival presents an interesting and credible way of maintaining the cinema as vigorous part of culture in the future. The coherent presentation ties it all together into a fully dedicated and accessible film festival venue - a truly rare thing these days."

Second prize: Symbiotic Venue by Nada Alqallaf and Jaime Sevilla

Project description: "By incorporating a film school into the cinema allows the proposal to grow beyond being 'a cinema and a school that happens to share the same building'.

This is strengthened by the architectural composition, which works very well with the idea: the concept of looking back towards the English theatre creates a design that allows audience and students to effortlessly enter a symbiotic relationship, enriching the experience of both parties. Using the interstitial space as another theatrical vehicle allows everyday uses, such as circulation within the building, to become another opportunity for spectator viewing."

Third prize: Peep(le) Show by Shuping Liu and Jackie Krasnokutskaya

Project description: "Building on curiosity, Peep(le) Show aims to attract people into the world of cinema by playing on peoples native inclination to observe and explore.

By offering much more than just a glimpse into the production side of the industry, Peep(le) Show invites an audience straight into the heart of film production. The simple black box opens up to a dynamic interior, designed to meet the needs of both professionals and general public, at the same time allowing for subtle overlaps and encounters. The appropriate presentation style adds a final touch to the proposal."

NATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE AND HOUSING BY LYNCH ARCHITECTS

The project by Lynch Architects,for a mixed-use development off Holloway Road in London,wants to involve a better accommodationfor the National Youth Theatre and substantial new housing.

“NYT’s accommodation is reconfigured and relocated to give additional sound stages, a café, archive space and lift access, as well as more of a public presence on the street. New porticos thread through the site, with bench seating that can also act as impromptu stages for students.” bdonline.co.uk

“Our project connects the Tufnell Park Road and Holloway Road, via a series of courtyards around which are composed some new and refurbished brick blocks housing flats above, with a series of workshops and small shops at ground floor.

The site is the home of the National Youth Theatre. We are providing NYT with new and improved accommodation as well as making their presence on the site more visible and accessible to the public.

A number of existing artisanal workshops and studios will be re-housed in new or refurbished accommodation.

We see the new buildings as versions of the Victorian Warehouses and Palazzo types that currently exist there, and have tried to find an appropriate architectural character for a deep city block that can mediate between 'high street' and the domestic hinterland of the site.” Says the architects.