29 January, 2010

Broadway Malyan’s Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park has been granted full planning permission.

The £16.1m scheme, located in Huyton, Knowsley, will provide state of the art leisure and cultural facilities for the local community. The 6,600m² leisure centre includes two 25m pools; an 8-lane competition pool and a 4-lane training tank complete with movable floor for maximum flexibility of use and accessibility. Spectator seating for around 300 people on the first floor overlooking the main pool will be provided. ‘Dry’ sports facilities include squash court, two dance/ multi-purpose studios, a 120 station fitness suite and a 6-court sports hall, incorporating retractable bleacher seating which will allow an audience of up to 900 people to view sports and other cultural events to be held there. The centre will also house an adult day care centre, ensuring people with disabilities can benefit from the activities on offer as well as within the local area. A bright and airy atrium agora lies centrally within the scheme and acts as a meeting, collection and orientation device for building users and staff, from which all the activities within the centre can be viewed and accessed.

The planning application also included a £5m OurPlace youth facility, for which a funding application has been submitted to Big Lottery Fund.  The 1,400m² ‘OurPlace’ youth centre is a ground breaking, vibrant and exciting facility for the young people of the borough to meet in and enjoy. Although it will be operated independently, it is attached to and sits forward of the leisure centre to interact with the community and knit the local urban grain together in terms of scale and rhythm.

Young people in Knowsley have been working closely with the engineers, architects and designers to ensure the facilities they want and need are provided.  IT, music and arts spaces, advice and wellbeing services, all housed in a welcoming and iconic new building, as well as an outdoor multi use games area, BMX and skateboarding facilities.

The form of the building responds directly to its context and the varying volumes of the internal spaces creating a dynamic angled roofline. The youth centre projects forward from the main body of the leisure centre, to knit together the local urban grain in terms of scale and massing. A carefully considered angled wall leads back from the road, drawing visitors towards the main entrance of the leisure centre and setting a considered geometry for the scheme which is echoed in the design of a new public square in front of the building. The scheme is designed to meet the BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating and renewable energy will be produced on site through a biomass boiler.

Start on site is anticipated in March 2010 with completion due in Autumn 2011.

07 January, 2010

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) unveiled its historic schools facilities programme at the BSEC MENA exhibition, held in December at ADNEC, Abu Dhabi.

The school facilities program will see the building of 18 new schools across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi starting in mid-2010. Broadway Malyan has been appointed to design nine of these schools, which are the first new schools to be developed under ADEC’s 10 Year Strategic Plan.

The schools will include seven Cycle 1 (Grade KG-5) schools, seven combined Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 schools (Grades 6-12), two Cycle 3 schools (Grades 10-12), and two KG-12 schools. The program will provide learning environments of the highest quality that support current teaching methods and new curricula while supporting the population growth of the Emirate.

“ADEC’s 10 Year Strategic Plan is a historic transformation of the education system that will deliver educational excellence. Providing students with world class learning environments is a key element of our 10 year plan and is the foundation for achieving excellence,” said H.E. Salem Al Sayeri, Acting Director General of ADEC.