Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve Building, Images, Architect

Brockholes Nature Reserve Visitor Centre

Rural Building in Preston, Lancashire design by Adam Khan Architects, England, UK

22 Jun 2012

Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve Award

Design: Adam Khan Architects

photos : Ioana Marinescu

RIBA Awards 2012 Citation:

Brockholes Visitor Centre Preston New Road, Samlesbury, Preston

The visitor centre at Brockholes is a cluster of buildings set in a lake on a floating pontoon, which responds to changing water levels in the flood plain. The architect has broken down what is a sizeable scheme into a simple and engaging village of buildings – restaurant, a shop, an exhibition hall, an education centre, and a conference centre – designed to celebrate the natural environment. Each cube or rectangle of accommodation has a barn-like roof creating an animated skyline floating above the lake.

What is most impressive is that here is a romantic conceptual idea, underpinned by sustainability, structural integrity, function and detail. A natural ventilation system is discreetly integrated, exploiting the stack effect of the barn-shaped roofs, resulting in a BREEAM excellent rating.

Brockholes Nature Reserve – RIBA Awards winner, 2012

Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve – Building Information

Architect: Adam Khan Architects
Client: Lancashire Wildlife Trust
Contractor: Mansell PLC
Structural Engineer: Price and Myers
Services Engineer: Max Fordham LLP
Contract Value: £6.25 million
Date of completion: May 2011
Gross internal area: 1,400 sqm

Brockholes Nature Reserve

2008-11

Design: Adam Khan Architects

Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve Visitor Facilities, near Preston
RIBA competition winner

Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve Visitor Facilities : Winner

Feb 2008

Adam Khan Architects has won the RIBA competition to design a new visitor facility for the Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve near Preston in Lancashire.

The vision for Brockholes was to design a suite of visitor facilities to inspire and encourage people to visit the site and engage with the natural world. The project is being developed as part of the Northwest Regional Development Agency’s £59 million Newlands land regeneration scheme in partnership with the Forestry Commission. The facilities will include a café, shop, gallery, education, and meeting rooms.

The competition was open and judged anonymously in the first stage with five teams then selected to give a presentation to the jury panel in November 2007. Following these interviews three teams were chosen to attend a final interview in February with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the commercial partners. Adam Khan architects were chosen above McDowell + Benedetti Architects and AY Architects as winners of the competition.

The winning design has been named ‘A Floating World’ and draws on the rich tradition of wetland dwellings, a floating world of thatch, reeds and willow.

Recalling the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq, neolithic settlements of Northern Europe, and the fabulous towering constructions of storks and herons. An island of pontoons gives unlimited flood protection, and brings the visitor straight to the very special environment of the wetlands; among the reed-beds at the water’s edge.

The project is zero-carbon in both use and production, with materials of low embodied energy – thatch, willow, timber, off-site prefabrication and on-site energy generation and waste treatment.

Ian Selby, Brockholes Project Manager said: “We are all very excited about the design and can’t wait for the vision to be realised on site and the public to be able to enjoy this wonderful resource.”

On his win, Adam Khan commented : “This is such a dream project for us: as well as the chance to make a unique, poetic landscape, we’re really excited by the potential of the project to make sustainability cross–over into the mainstream – by enticing and delighting, by demonstrating how interesting and how beautiful it could be to rise to the challenges facing us all.”

The winning team will now work closely with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the Forestry Commission to progress the winning concept.

Brockholes Nature Reserve Visitor Facilities – Design Team

Adam Khan Architects team: Adam Khan, Timo Keller, Giovanni Petroliti

Consultants:
Hareth Pochee (Max Fordham engineers)
Paul Toplis (Price&Myers engineers)
Alan Tovey, Richard Collis (Jackson Coles)
Martin Gamble, Jason Waddy (Mouchel Parkmann)

Brockholes Nature Reserve Lancashire

Brockholes is a Lancashire Wildlife Trust-owned site, which was purchased under the Newlands scheme in December 2006, with additional support from the Tubney Trust and Lancashire Wildlife Trust member donations.
Brockholes will be transformed through a unique partnership of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and Forestry Commission.

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is registered as Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT), as a Registered Charity number 229325 and a Company limited by guarantee number 731548. LWT is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying North of the River Mersey.

Newlands stands for New Economic Woodlands. Launched in the summer of 2003, Newlands is a unique £59 million scheme that is reclaiming large areas of derelict, underused and neglected (DUN) land across England’s Northwest, transforming them into thriving, durable, community woodlands. It is the 21st Century face of land regeneration: carefully planned; intelligence-led; delivering widespread public benefits; enhancing the environment; and delivered through partnerships, most crucially that between the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the Forestry Commission.

Commitment of funding for the 20-year scheme has been secured from the partnership that is supporting Newlands. The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) has approved £59million in total for investment in the Newlands programme.

LWT provides protection for endangered species, owns and manages nature reserves, educates and inspires children to carry on the work, offers opportunities for people to volunteer in worthwhile conservation projects and campaigns at every level of government.

LWT manages 34 Nature Reserves covering 2000 acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow.
LWT welcomed nearly 7000 children to our Education Centres last year and they went away with an enthusiasm to help save wildlife.

LWT is involved with numerous community projects and provides specialist training for environmental volunteers.
LWT protects urban wildlife by creating green spaces in towns and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
LWT works with Local Authorities, influencing the decision makers and resisting developments that would damage wildlife habitat.

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside,
The Barn, Berkeley Drive, Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 6BY.
Tel: 01772 324129

Adam Khan Architects

Location: Brockholes, Preston, Lancashire, Northwest England, UK