BDP 2010 Air, Light, Sound - Atmosphere

Air, Light, Sound – Atmosphere Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

2

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

Contents

BDP will celebrate its 50th year in May 2011

The Halle Orchestra play at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Old Trafford designed by BDP

A Designer’s Sensibility Difference & Commonalities Atmosphere

04 06 07

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

08 24 40 54

2010 Awards

80

3

4

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

A Designer’s Sensibility

By Tony McGuirk Chairman

Recently while in Stockholm looking at new architecture, I reflected on the way the city moves from bright summer daylight through an elongated twilight and into the darkness. From a bright low angled sun, that glitters on the surface of the water, spaces, buildings, and city squares, you gently descend into a city nocturne. The sculptural city buildings on their island forms are left unlit at night except for the lighting in windows, streetlights, and the movements from cars, bikes and boats. The lighting character stimulates the human senses to create a mood that swings from the energising to the soporific. This approach to lighting a city is not only related to linking human rhythms with climatic rhythms but also links beauty and atmosphere to the use of energy.

This is also the case in the Scandinavian home, where daylight and sunlight is enjoyed to the full in the long hours of summer as the house is opened up. In the winter the home becomes more closed, and lit in territories with lighting related to those spaces of activity in use, eating, relaxing, reading and resting.

Homes are never fully lit, just those areas that people are using.

On special evenings a home can be supplemented with lamps and candles and outdoor fire baskets. This sequential lighting of spaces as people use them also creates an interaction of the lighter with the light source and the lit space. This is very different from the instant brightness of the lights in the ceiling approach.

It is no coincidence that Scandinavian designers have created such a variety of lights suitable to lighting intimate activities.

They have brought to us a multitude of beautiful, pendant lights, table lights, floor lights and reading lights. This is an ‘out of the darkness and into the light’ culture which came from the candle, oil lamp and fire basket. The effect is humanising and beautiful.

BDP’s installation at the night hike for Maggie’s Centres in London created a series of light sources in low cost translucent carrier bags. Dedications written on the outside of the bags formed the silhouetted, decorative script to the installation, whose heart shape arrangement formed a beautiful lantern appropriate to this contemplative event. It is very interesting how the quality of night-time illumination and daylight link atmosphere, well being, and mood with energy use. This link we found to be important In our masterplan for the Seaton Sustainable New Town, Toronto.

Here we looked at the simple relationship of streets, and observed that primarily a north south orientation gives maximum light and warmth to both side of the buildings during daylight hours. In the commercial streets which form the centre of neighbourhoods, a north south orientation maximises enjoyable movement of people. Pavements enjoy sunlight to both sides throughout the day, creating a warm microclimate particularly welcome during winter months. This also gives greater possibilities to the trading activities at pavement level. Cafes on both sides of the street can enjoy al fresco seating in the sunshine; outdoor displays enjoy the same bright atmosphere that encourages human interaction and entices you to browse and buy. This enjoyment of warmth by people in outdoor spaces, from this simple configuration by the designer, also aids the ‘winter warming’ of homes as both sides receive sunlight. In the summer both sides of the house become open-up-able with each side receiving sun and shade throughout the day cycle. The potential to use the natural elements to temper and benefit living patterns creates greater possibilities of enjoyable use by the individual, group and community.

Profligate use of energy becomes marked in cities that have been designed with a different outlook. Manhattan is a favourite place for many of us. It is however a place that uses vast amounts of energy in lighting buildings. Forty per cent of Manhattan’s energy is consumed in lighting. The surprising statistic is that fifty percent of this is used during daylight hours. The modern movement, particularly in North America, taught us how to build high and deep. This capability was welcomed by the pack-themin functionalist/commercialist fraternity of deep office space, and single aspect high rise living. Counterpoint to this, it is interesting these days to find that it is the mid rise parts of Manhattan that have attracted the new urban generation, with big spaces in old reused buildings with light from both sides forming blocks for all different uses. These are the areas that have created a new form of urban living attracting many of the new generation of urban livers and urban visitors. These parts of the island city are more akin to living in an old city like Stockholm. Unfortunately, many of the ‘new’ cities in the modernising world continue to exacerbate an artificial environment with the consequences of massive energy use, ugly and inhuman modernism.

Being able to control your own environment, be it a living space, workspace or learning space, is key to human wellbeing and a human environment. Architects, designers and engineers during the modern movement have been driven by the idea of controlling the environment for the user. Proponents of this often argue that using designed systems actually saves energy use within buildings, and of course they say we can measure it. This, in my view, does depend on your starting point and the sensibility of the designer to how natural the spaces can be and the potentialities of the users to use natural sources in their sense of control. Research has shown that, more often than not, users like to control their buildings easily, and very often become frustrated with technologies that override that.

This control and command approach can be seen in the designer’s relationship with sound. This vital sensory aspect of place, is becoming more and more a determining factor in how we design, with rules and regulations on noise transfer of overriding importance. The noise analysis of a site often responds to that ‘Carmelite in the Box’, the noise meter which tends to trigger regulations that constrain the natural use of buildings in urban environments. Human beings are not in the main Carmelite in tendency, though no one would deny a wish to have quiet time. Living in the centre of London in a BDP designed building, I am often aware that it is the sounds of the city that create the attraction to live in this place. Our building is a communal courtyard city block, like those centuries before in Paris, Barcelona and many other European cities. The courtyard forms the quiet sunny and protective communal side with the scent of lavender from the courtyard garden. The outer street side has the sounds of the city, its movement and its activities.

The city side fluctuates quite a lot in sound levels and indeed types of sounds. As city dwellers, we control our home naturally, tempering the sound as we wish in opening and closing different sides. Our building has a narrow plan which allows it to warm it up with low angled winter sun that crosses the whole width of the interior. Reciprocally, it is easy to feel cool on summer days by opening up the opposite sides to give through draught.

Simple canvas shop awnings further temper very hot sun to south facing windows, a technique used in European cities for centuries. So when it comes to noise we find it reassuring and energising to hear the escalating sound of the bus movements from six in the morning, we don’t find it a disturbance; it’s the sound of our city moving into activity. Strangely, the only sound that slightly disturbs, is the occasional hoofed clatter of the Horse Guards as they sometimes choose our street on their route to Hyde Park for morning exercise. We wonder what the city must have sounded like in the mid 19th century, as the roar of

hoofed traffic mixed with church bells, boat whistles and hooters adding to the atmospherics of a great and vibrant urban place.

As designers the relationship to places and their characters and atmospheres is a sensibility we must rediscover if we are to create places that are sustainable, and also have human qualities that give delight and usefulness to those who use them. In our education we are generally taught to problem solve, and to resolve things by intervention, often through technology. The use of energy is usually reciprocal to the intervention of technology, and it is the natural aspects of our world and its places that can aid us in our quest for resolution in these things. Re-educating designer and user to the way they value, treat and use natural (free) elements is vital to a more sustainable environment. Recently I was asked to write an article for a magazine on a very fine awardwinning school, that had a very innovative environmental control system for the classrooms. As I was interviewing the architect, the Head of the Design Technology Department became curious as to what we were doing walking around the school. After brief introductions, I asked him what he thought of his new building. He was positive towards the building but said that his main classroom often got too hot and he couldn’t understand why there weren’t many opening windows. The architect rushed to the cause with the explanation of the environmental control system which of course he wasn’t aware of. He was informed about how he could control his own classroom discretely through this system, and that hot or cool air could be provided with the use of a simple control. He went off slightly bemused at why he hadn’t been informed of this before and curious to try it out. I suppose I just wondered why he simply couldn’t have more windows to open.

5

6

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

Difference & Commonalities

By Peter Drummond Chief Executive

Atmosphere Change. Politicians talk about it. Bowie, Dylan, and Sam Cooke sang about it. And leading design practices around the world are feeling it. No more so than over the last few years, with economies pummelled by the impacts of the banking crisis and recession, and western governments striving to introduce a new age of austerity. Conversely, developing economies struggle to develop their built environment infrastructure apace with the demands of their expanding and aspiring populations.

As a progressive, international design firm, BDP has embraced these changes, accepting that whilst there are still some constants, there are many differences to the way in which we practise.

What remains the same is our culture as a strong, employeeowned independent firm, focused on a humanistic, sustainable and interdisciplinary design approach to creating places. People, infrastructure, a diverse portfolio and technology, remain in perpetual focus. The work of our 1100 people remains diverse, spanning the design and engineering of places for living, learning, working, shopping, moving, sports and culture. Our fee income has reduced a little to £96m, and BDP resumed its place at the top of the AJ100 major architectural practices.

However, much is changing. In fact, the end of the decade has seen a huge shift in the landscape of design practices in the UK and around the world. The shift away from public spending in many developed countries is a disappointing, albeit understandable, consequence of economic recession.

BDP has been at the forefront of user-centric design of social infrastructure since its foundation nearly 50 years ago – we know that there is still much to do but we have to accept that there will be a significant lull. Meanwhile, there is a gradual reawakening of the commercial property sector to position itself for an increase in occupier demand in three or four years’ time, which means a stirring of many sleeping projects.

The most significant change is the massive scale and needs of urbanisation internationally, especially in the major developing economies. This is prompting major architect and engineering companies to reposition themselves, with significant corporate agglomerations developing.

For BDP, this shift towards internationalism is critical. But we are tackling it in our own way and this means ensuring that our brand, ethos, sector specialisms, and connection with the place are at the heart of what we do. BDP has well-established design studios throughout the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands – these have now been joined by new studios in India and Abu Dhabi. We also have a permanent presence in China, which will develop into a studio in 2011. We are also designing projects in 35 different countries. The mix of these projects reflects our diversity – from universities in Libya, China, and Cyprus, to hospitals in Ukraine and India, and major masterplanning and retail projects in Kuwait, Syria, China, and India – to name but a few. Our approach to these projects is influenced by a huge variety of factors – different cultures, customs, language, competition, contracts, regulations, timezones, and of course climate, bound together by our design ethos of creating places for people. Which all makes for an exciting and complex future.

Someone once said that the only thing that is certain is change.

Similarly, BDP’s outlook is based on the understanding that difference is the greatest commonality.

University of York’s new campus at Heslington East. Here, as in Sunderland, an atmosphere is created by an imaginative fusion of peoples’ activities, the climatic shaping of outdoor spaces, the building forms and character and the relationship with nature.

By Martin Spring Writer & Commentator It is without question that people are affected by the atmosphere of buildings and places. Visit any great city and watch the swathes of tourists attempting to capture this ethereal substance on their digital cameras and mobile phones. Many get themselves into contorted positions as well as calling on the modern camera’s optical contortions to capture the dome of a basilica, the space of a grand palace or thronging piazza or market place. The lucky artist takes up a simple position allowing his or her imagination to combine with the view to create a sketch or painting that translates the atmosphere of the place rather than takes a literal copy of the subject. I have often observed the digital tourists peek over the shoulder of the artist, curiously wondering why they can’t quite capture that angle – it doesn’t exist.

Atmosphere is shaped by the imagination of the designer into reality. The ultimate test of the design is then the experience by the user and observer whose imagination is stimulated and the effect is deemed atmospheric - take a photo! Of course these days atmosphere is often described by people as ‘Wow Factor’.

This Americanisation of describing buildings and places that are uplifting or inspiring is a shorthand way of people recording a positive stimulation in what they are experiencing. The modern colloquialism has now infiltrated all bodies of opinion.

Recently I noted that BDP’s university campus at the University of Sunderland was placed in the top 5 universities for ‘Wow Factor’ by none than the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. This is similarly emulated in the design of the

Other projects from this year’s crop from BDP’s interdisciplinary designers demonstrate a wide spectrum of atmospheric effects, many of them employing devices of light, sound and air. The most basic atmosphere exuded by a building is, of course, the sense of heritage that is built into the fabric of historic buildings, many of which are now protected by government listing.

The special trick here is to retain that sense of heritage and continuity when the building changes use, as is evident in the Athenaeum in Glasgow, switched from music school to hotel and shops and the Georgian government offices of Somerset House, part of which now caters for university students.

At Haggerston Baths in the London Borough of Hackney, the century-old barrel vaulted swimming hall is to be refurbished and a new adjunct added bringing new activities and life. Externally the new wing is given a matching cylindrical profile, while internally it borrows the visual and spatial impact of the original pool hall by replacing the separating wall with a transparent screen to accentuate the experience of the activities.

Soft and curvilinear forms are recurrent BDP favourites. In Glasgow, Strathclyde University’s TIC building complex, tightly curving forms and spaces are focused on an elliptical tower. They make an exciting break from the surrounding urban grid as well as a palpable sense of cohesion and close integration of the three departments housed there. In President Kennedy School in Coventry, the cluster of at least nine oval forms gives an unmistakable stamp of individuality that should inspire feelings in its pupils of belonging and, hopefully, academic application, in a different communal atmosphere.

Even more atmospheric is the observation tower in Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire. This builds on the traditions of classical and romantic gardens creating different experiences to heighten the senses. The route to the tower winds mysteriously through the tree canopy along an elevated timber walkway.

Here there is much more to the exhilarating atmosphere than what the eye can see. The feel of the breeze on the skin, the bounce of the timber walkway underfoot, the fresh air enriched by the natural aromas of trees, plants and earth, and the sound of rustling leaves: all these play their part.

For pure atmospherics we often turn to sport, and The Point at Old Trafford for Lancashire County Cricket Club hits it for six.

Events boxes are often sandwiched into grandstand terracing with a sliver for viewing. Not here, as the big events box is lifted on shoulders above the crowd and painted red like the rose of the county. As you will see, it sets the cameras clicking.

7

8

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

nanjing medical university, jiangsu, china

Air

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

g

9

10

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

nanjing medical university, jiangsu, china

foshan civic quarter, china

This iconic pair of buildings united by monopitch roofs rising gently in opposite directions won an international design competition. The surrounding lakeland will be constantly on view through extensive window walls, while internal wintergardens will offer relief in severe weather.

This extensive new civic quarter will form the heart of the boom city of Foshan and encompass cultural centre, library, exhibition hall, research university and civic offices. Three ‘rivers’, respectively a leisure river, a formal river and an ecology river, give the quarter a clear structure and express its character.

11

12

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f

clydebank shopping centre glasgow, scotland

Clydebank’s existing shopping centre is to be revamped and extended to attract more upmarket retailers. Clydebank town centre will be enhanced, while an existing canal towpath will be upgraded into an attractive promenade lined with classy, glass-fronted shops and open-air cafes.

margaret mcmillan park lewisham, london

g

Once little more than a through-route for commuters, this public park now attracts local people to stroll, sit and play surrounded by greenery without fear of crime. Planting, lighting, footpaths and seating have all been improved, while the children’s playground has been revamped and brought centre stage.

f

environmental & sustainability institute tremough, cornwall

This BREEAM Outstanding university building is intended as both an exemplar and a ‘living laboratory’ of the sustainable environments it is set up to research. It will be a showcase particularly for sustainable and passive methods of construction, such as massive walls and natural ventilation.

13

14

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f

graham headquarters

hillsborough, northern ireland

The central atrium in this three-storey building fosters integration between the different departments of a large construction company.

The atrium also induces natural ventilation, and together with biomass boilers and nighttime cooling through exposed floor slabs, this makes the building highly sustainable.

Summer

Winter

Night Time Cooling

academy for innovation & research tremough, cornwall

g

Business research is carried out in this highly sustainable building beneath a gently curved green roof that springs from a sloping site.

Its fully glazed north face floods the interior in daylight, offers spectacular views of the countryside and at night shines out as a beacon for University College Falmouth.

zutphen, netherlands

g

Zutphen’s river embankment, currently dominated by cars, will be transformed into a lively pedestrian promenade in the fresh air.

Another recommendation in this vision for the city centre is that the faded shopping area should be rejuvenated with larger, modern shops and attractive pedestrian routes.

15

16

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

spikvoorde, deventer, netherlands

inverness college

beechwood campus, scotland

This vibrant building sets the tone for a new campus outside Inverness. The building lies low in the Highland countryside, while the library pops up an extra floor to gain spectacular views. Along the north side, a row of narrow ‘teaching fingers’ benefit from diffuse daylight and natural ventilation.

Overlooking a natural stream in the sandy rural landscape of the eastern Netherlands are rows of three-storey houses connected on the ground floor. They belong to one of three neighbourhoods that are all distinguished by different water features and together make up this town extension.

17

18

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

ontario gardens, toronto, canada

g

This ‘climatic city island’ creates interlinked biosphere structures for living, learning and recreation. These climate shaped environments, open up for summer activities and protect from winter chill. Subtropics houses provide exotic nature and pleasure. Vertical kitchen gardens deliver home grown city provisions, and biosphere learning houses allow for all year schools, play and fun research.

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

19

20

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f

highbury grove & samuel rhodes schools, london

This new school building wraps itself around the perimeter of the site of two existing schools it replaces. A few classrooms are double-height internal spaces lit through glazed roofs. Ingenious energy-saving features include a swimming pool that doubles as part of a combined heat and power plant.

21

22

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

highbury grove & samuel rhodes

schools, london

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

23

24

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

milton keynes academy, buckinghamshire

Light

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

g

25

26

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

milton keynes academy buckinghamshire

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f teddington school, london

g

Milton Keynes Academy revolves around a central hub devoted to business and enterprise. Three department blocks radiate outwards towards a ring of five year-based ‘villages’. Sunlit, open-plan interiors should foster social cohesion by encouraging selfdirected learning and small group activities.

One of the first One-School for the Future Pathfinders, the school is an exploration of new ways of learning and creates a student village around a social square, while reconnecting the school with the riverside environment.

27

28

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f crossrail, whitechapel station london

This historic London Underground station will be expanded to include a new regional rail line. Passengers will be greeted with daylight and fresh air on a new open-air walkway and bridge over the tracks. Local residents will be shielded from noise by carefully designed access and ventilation shafts.

29

30

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

defence science & technology laboratory

school & church

wiltshire & hampshire

veenendaal, netherlands

Two large complexes of Ministry of Defence laboratories have benefited from a ÂŁ400m refurbishment and newbuild programme.

New additions include a staff restaurant that is brightened up by ample daylight, sunlight and views into a landscaped amenity space that was once a dingy courtyard.

This new church and school combine with a new waterside square to form the centrepiece of an urban masterplan. The public square is saved from the clutter of cars parked by church-goers on Sundays, when the school playground neatly switches into a parking lot.

31

32

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

university of york

heslington east campus, cluster two

The master plan for the second cluster of the campus creates a living and learning environment to complement the award winning cluster one. Two new student residential colleges are designed to create a microclimatic wrap to an academic and research heart overlooking the new lake to the south.

chichester university library bognor regis, sussex

A state-of-the-art library with a curvaceous, clear-glazed frontage will form the eyecatching centrepiece of this provincial university campus and bind it together. Containing 200 study places, training areas and a cafe/ social hub, it will dispense academic support, financial advice and careers advice.

33

34

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f eastwood & lasswade high schools

renfrewshire & midlothian, scotland

A standardised design toolkit is to be pioneered in these two schools that could save costs when rolled out through another 53 schools.

General classrooms, toilets and stair cores could all be standardised, leaving special areas such as breakout and social spaces to create each school’s individual identity.

h

treehouse nursery, robert gordon

university, aberdeen, scotland

The imagination and sensitivity of young children knows no bounds and the new Treetop Nursery at Robert Gordon University provides a stimulating and responsive environment in which they can learn and develop. The low-lying structure nestles against woodland on the banks of the River Dee in Aberdeen providing children with a direct connection to the superlative surrounding landscape.

The clarity of the plan-form and section act as a perfect receptacle for the rich play of natural light and sunshine that illuminate and transform the ever-changing interior.

35

36

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

seaton sustainable new town

toronto, canada

g

The model neighbourhood within this new town of 70,000 residents is designed around the creation of warm microclimatic street patterns centred on a mixed-use high street, within 5 minute walking times for all residents.

Groups of neighbourhoods are interlinked with communal energy systems, public transit routes, cycle ways and pedestrian walkways.

vertical schools sustainable building character

solar orientation

public green spaces shared by schools

mixed use housing

community cultural centres

active edges

public transit system connecting centroids north-south boulevard equal share of sunlight

controlled car systems

cycle lanes protected pedestrians

37

38

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

39

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f university of york

heslington east campus, cluster one

Created on an open site with few features, it forms a completely new place integrating learning and living in a new lakeshore setting. The overall concept of learning within a landscape setting, creates building groups and landscaped spaces shaped around protective and warm microclimates, pedestrian and cycle routes.

40

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

the rock, bury, lancashire

g

Sound

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

41

42

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f

the rock, bury, lancashire

The masterplan for The Rock draws on the historical street pattern and public realm context to give the scheme its own identity. With open streets and a host of new brands the scheme reinforces Bury’s position as a market town by expanding the leisure offer and the evening economy.

43

44

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

culcheth high school, warrington

g

Fingers of this three-storey school stretch out into the landscape and are linked at the opposite end by a triple-decker internal street. In the gaps between the fingers stand two-storey timber hubs containing social facilities such as dining hall, library, computer rooms and conference spaces.

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

45

46

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f

culcheth high school, warrington

47

48

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

six stations, arriva trains wales

g

A high-level ticket hall floats over the central platform in this branch railway station, one of six in design. Two enclosed footbridges give access to the ticket hall and double up as a link between the town centre and former industrial land that had previously languished on the wrong side of the tracks.

h recital room at royal northern college of music, manchester

This makeover of a 1970s recital room has a northern edgy feel that should appeal to students. It also increases the acoustic range by removing a suspended ceiling. And a new learning deck inserted at one end and access gallery along one side now connect the room with the rest of the college.

49

50

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

union square, aberdeen, scotland

g

A major mixed-use shopping centre has been developed on a former rail goods yard site in the heart of Aberdeen. As well as a dazzling array of shops and restaurants, the complex includes the redevelopment of the central rail station, a new bus station, a 10-screen cinema and a 203-bed hotel.

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

51

52

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

royal college of radiologists

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

somerset house east wing, london

london

In this late 19th century office building, one of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings in the country, an early concept sketch shows a refurbishment as befits a royal college.

A variety of functions include a top floor members’ suite, examination rooms and administration facilities with a roof terrace with views over Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

The East Wing of one of London’s grandest Georgian civic buildings is to be refurbished

by King’s College London. Narrow alleyways will be opened up for public access, and the interiors, including basements below the paved central quadrangle, will be converted into a diverse mix of arts and academic facilities.

53

54

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

manchester visitor information centre

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

g

Atmosphere

55

56

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

manchester visitor information centre

Manchester City Council’s recently opened visitor information centre is a cool ‘gallery of information’ that puts paid to the traditional counter service.

Interactive touch screens in Microsoft ‘surface tables’ help visitors discover the city through a wealth of information, guides and maps.

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

57

58

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

tilburg station public realm netherlands i

Redundant train repair yards next to Tilburg’s central station will be regenerated as a vibrant, high-density hub for living, working and social activities. A landscaped public square will be created, and several historic train sheds and even an antique railway coach or two will be converted to new uses.

h weavers triangle, burnley, lancashire

president kennedy school, coventry

A century ago, the Weavers Triangle was a textile industry hotbed that throbbed with weaving sheds and spinning mills. All the vacant buildings have now been surveyed, and design guidance has been drawn up to regenerate the area’s 16 hectares while retaining its raw industrial character.

In this novel pin-wheel configuration of a school, nine oval ‘learning colleges’ revolve around a central social hub. Interiors can be adapted over time to provide a balance of open, semiopen and closed learning spaces. It should foster a learning community that students will find secure, nurturing and inspiring.

g

h haggerston baths, hackney, london Healthcare, fitness and leisure will all be wrapped up together in this innovative conversion of a listed swimming pool designed by Alfred Cross.

The pool will be refurbished, and a new visually connected wing added to contain doctor’s surgery, gym, dance studios and areas for children’s play and community activities.

59

60

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

queen elizabeth hospital, birmingham

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

61

62

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

queen elizabeth hospital, birmingham g

Birmingham’s large yet compact hospital sets a new model for efficient healthcare design.

Three elliptical towers funnel daylight to some 1230 beds through both their perimeters and their hollow cores. The towers rise directly above a high-tech medical treatment podium containing 30 operating theatres.

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

63

64

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f athenaeum, glasgow, scotland Built to house the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, the Athenaeum is a fine example of the flamboyant style that flourished in Glasgow in the late 19th century. Behind the narrow ornamental façade, its deep floor plan will now be extended and converted into a hotel above retail on the ground floor.

trentham gardens observation tower

stoke-on-trent g

This viewing platform hangs precipitously over the water’s edge and rewards visitors with a spectacular vista over lake and gardens. But getting there is also part of the inspiring experience, as the route winds its way mysteriously through the tree canopy along a high-level timber walkway.

h imperial war museum masterplan london

A new gallery inserted into the original Imperial War Museum in south London is fitted out with interactive displays and also improves public access to the whole collection. A masterplan is now being drawn up to cover all three sites of the war museum, including a WWII airfield.

65

66

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

lancashire care nhs foundation trust

forten honswijk, netherlands

The facilities for mental health inpatients will be in keeping with the surrounding buildings and landscape to minimise negative impact on the local communities. A design principle is applied of one-third garden and external landscaping, onethird inpatient facilities and one-third parking to promote a spacious and functional environment enhancing the natural beauty of the area.

Three massive historic brick forts encircled by water are the subject of a set of inspiring new visions. The visions open up scope for landscape improvements as well as possible alterations and additions to buildings, though all grounded in the forts’ monumental forms, spaces, fabric and character.

smoking shelter/pavilion covered walkway in dementia courtyard

raised bed with sensory planting

67

68

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

f derry city centre public realm northern ireland

Derry’s 17th century city walls, and the grid of squares and streets they enclose, make up one of the UK’s finest historic city centres.

These public spaces have now been enhanced with stone paving, fountains and tree planting to create pedestrian-friendly settings for social interaction and cultural activity.

inter ikea centre group, wuxi, china

g

An egg-shaped leisure hub overlooking a large internal square and ice rink makes up the centrepiece of this spectacular new retail and leisure centre. Beneath a vast circular glazed roof, cinemas and restaurants with open dining terraces cascade down three floors to the hub.

69

70

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

prospect mill, bradford

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

i

A hillside array of Bradford’s historic woollen mills, along with the intervening gap sites, are to be regenerated as a contemporary mix of family town houses, apartments for the elderly, managed workspace and a cafe. Extensive roof terraces and gardens will make the most of the steeply sloping, south-facing site.

technology & innovation centre

strathclyde university, glasgow, scotland

Study for three university innovation departments have been dramatically integrated into three crescent-shaped blocks wrapped around an elliptical tower. The narrow, curving gap between crescents and tower serves as an open-air pedestrian route on one side and an enclosed atrium on the other and is spanned by footbridges.

g

71

72

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

bombay boulevard, mumbai, india

The vision is for an urban oasis, which will be a highly sustainable development with carefully integrated elements. New civic spaces and lively piazzas will greet visitors.

Central to the scheme will be a luxury high end mall with top name boutiques and gourmet restaurants, and a feature viewing platform.

h

two waters open space

hemel hempstead, hertfordshire

Pasture land that is grazed by cattle and criss-crossed by two local rivers and a canal penetrates as far as the town centre of this post-war new town. Looking ahead, its intrinsic biodiversity and ecology should be retained while also admitting recreation and sensitive new building development.

73

74

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

bio science campus, hyderabad, india

75

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

abu dhabi schools, united arab emirates

i

Masterplan for a very rocky site. The positioning of buildings is guided to a large extent by the site conditions. A space in the middle works as the focus of the campus with an amphitheatre at one end and the corporate headquarters at the other end.

Prototype design for Abu Dhabi Education Council schools programme. Conceived as a clear organisational diagram in a dynamic and welcoming building form, the robust and scalable model can respond to a variety of school types and locations.

h

amersham vale, deptford, london

A former school site is to be split into housing development and public open space. On the housing side, a triangle of three-storey terraces will enclose a communal garden.

On the open space side, an urban forest will form an attractive amenity while also muffling noise from informal sports areas.

01 - Main Entrance 02 - Community Entrance 03 - Auditorium 04 - Admin 05 - Sports 06 - Oasis 07 - Learning Community Kindergarten (K1&K2) 08 - Learning Community x2 (Cycle1) 09 - Learning Community x3 (Cycle 2&3) 10 - Sports Fields 11 - Specialist Teaching 12 - Learning Resource Centre & Prayer 13 - Special Educational Needs

76

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

lancashire county cricket club phase 1, manchester

A huge new events hall perches dramatically above 2500 new open-air seats in this highly energy-efficient revamp of Manchester’s famous cricket club. Exposed steel girders and heavily profiled aluminium cladding allude to Old Trafford’s industrial surroundings and also to its red brand colour.

g

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

77

78

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

79

80

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

the ron cooke hub, york university

2010 Awards

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

g

81

82

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

Best Designed Place Award

G

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

G

G

Winners The Best Designed Place awards go to projects completed over the past year which celebrate a sense of place for people. The projects chosen this year are from a range of building types and sectors but all have the common theme — a people-centred approach.

GGB BDP Building of the Year Award 2010 Winner: University of York, Heslington East Campus

The Rock, Bury

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham

The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Old Trafford

G

In the Review we also announce the winner of the GGB BDP Award, our own award named after our founder, awarded to the project from those nominated by our offices which best demonstrates our abilities and values and has been recognised by clients, customers and society.

All the projects shown here have received a Best Designed Place Award. Projects displaying G motif were shortlisted for the GGB BDP Award — the winner is University of York, Heslington East Campus.

University of York, Heslington East Campus

Culcheth High School, Warrington

Teddington School

The first phase or cluster of the University of York’s new campus at Heslington East, is larger by far than the campus we designed for the University of Sunderland in the 1990s. Created on an open site with few features, it forms a completely new place integrating learning and living in a new lakeshore setting. The buildings are visually striking whilst having a human scale and identity. The overall concept of learning within a landscape setting, creates building groups and landscaped spaces shaped around protective and warm microclimates, pedestrian and cycle routes.

Our Sheffield architects led the project and designed the five academic buildings with London contributing masterplanning, the design of the university housing, lighting and interior design to most of the academic buildings, with the landscape and acoustics designed in our Manchester studio.

Highbury Grove and Samuel Rhodes Schools, Islington

Union Square, Aberdeen

Manchester Visitor Information Centre

83

84

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010 g 2011

BDP Sustainable Futures 2010 Award

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

BDP Highlights 2010

Winner: President Kennedy School, Coventry This award is given to a project still in design which demonstrates innovative thinking that progresses our work in creating sustainable places. We received twelve entries and the winner was President Kennedy Learning Community Coventry BSF, with two highly commended projects which were B&Q Headquarters and Southmead Hospital, Bristol.

In the UK, our Liverpool studio moved to a new location alongside the park in our masterplanned Liverpool One development, with a renewed focus on urban regeneration within the city.

We are creatively strong in the design and planning of a growing range of building types and places, and this is reflected in the numerous awards won this year. We collected two RIBA Awards for Cardiff Central Library and Navigation Warehouse in Wakefield. Cardiff Central Library, a BREEAM excellent rated building, also won the sustainability category in the RICS Wales Awards, amongst others.

The projects were judged by an independent jury panel of Martin Spring, freelance journalist and former architectural editor of Building magazine; Peter Hunter, urban design consultant and Adrian Leaman of the Usable Buildings Trust. The winner and runners up were announced at a Board meeting earlier in the year.

As we head towards the 50th anniversary of the founding of BDP, our wider geographical network is creating an ‘international’ BDP, an international firm where the diversity of character and culture of region, place and people is of fundamental importance. The strength of our values, diversity, interdisciplinary approach and place-making philosophy differentiate us in this increasingly competitive market.

In April and May, we achieved a significant milestone – two new studios on two new continents in two months. We are delighted to welcome new BDP people and new clients to our studios in Abu Dhabi and New Delhi. Work in other parts of the world continues to develop and we are now engaged in projects in over 30 countries with China and Canada in particular offering exciting opportunities in sectors we lead in the UK. Our international success led to us being placed at 46 out of 100 in the inaugural Sunday Times International Track 100. The league table ranks private companies by foreign sales growth over their latest two financial years.

Taking sustainable design excellence to a new level is the new building for PwC, 7 More London near Tower Bridge in Central London. It is the first building in the capital, and the first major office in the UK, to be awarded the BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating, the highest award for best practice in sustainable design and environmental performance for buildings.

In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Physical Planning Housing and Environment in the Netherlands recognised the new Paleiskwartier urban quarter in Den Bosch as one of only 35 landmarks which have contributed to the Making of the Netherlands in the past 250 years.

This year we won two awards at the British Council for Offices awards. The interior design for PwC at 141 Bothwell Street, Glasgow was national winner of the Fitout category, and West Lothian Civic Centre, Livingston was winner of the National Innovation Award.

Two BDP designed schools, Marlowe Academy Ramsgate and Bridge Academy, Hackney, London, have been chosen by the OECD for their new Compendium of Exemplary Learning Facilities.

This will be launched in Paris during our 50th birthday year and is published every 5 years to inform educational facility design, providing inspiring ideas for educators, architects and policy makers worldwide.

Congratulations go to Michelle McDowell, Civil and Structural Engineering Director, who was honoured with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to the construction industry. She was also awarded the ‘First Woman of Property’ at the First Women Awards.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Swain-Smith, Environmental Engineering Director in London, as a Company Director. Three new Profession Directors were also appointed in Manchester and Sheffield Tony Robinson, Architect, Jaimie Fergusson, Urban Designer and Robert Ferry, Environmental Engineer.

We all look forward to 2011 and celebrating 50 years since the founding of BDP.

85

86

Creating Places for People Annual Review 2010

Air Light Sound Atmosphere

Credits

May 2011, BDP at 50

Design: BDP Photography: David Barbour Sanna Fisher-Payne Martine Hamilton-Knight Rory Moore Kilian O’Sullivan Will Pryce Paul Zanre Editorial Team: Tony McGuirk Helen Moorhouse Martin Spring Richard Dragun Sheri Besford Lynda Athey Cover Image: Manchester Visitor Information Centre Printed by: Fulmar Colour

87