Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park gains planning approval

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.


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Sir William Rous Unit awarded Macmillan Quality Environmental Mark

Broadway Malyan’s Sir William Rous Unit at Kingston Hospital has been awarded the new Macmillan Quality Environmental Mark.

One of the first sites in the country to be awarded the new standard, the award recognises and rewards good practice and high standards within the physical environment of a cancer care building. It reflects the hard work and dedication of not only the design team but also all of the staff and volunteers who work to make the centre a welcoming and supportive environment for patients and their families. Consideration is given to such things as the greeting people receive when they come to a centre, the use of natural light and outdoor space, and the availability of quiet, private rooms – all areas that were highlighted as really important by people living with cancer who helped develop the award. The MQEM will help to ensure that people affected by cancer are treated and supported in physical environments of uniformly high quality.

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/HowWeCanHelp/CancerEnvironments/MQEM/AwardWinningEnvironments.aspx

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 10:59 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

RWE Npower Renewables project completes

Broadway Malyan has completed its latest scheme for RWE NPower Renewables at Auckland House, Swindon.

With a brief from the renewable energy developer to establish its own identity and culture, and to differentiate its product, the new building needed to reflect corporate values as well as provide a flexible work space.

The state-of-the-art workplace has been designed to be predominantly open-plan with a variety of alternative workspaces for team and individual activities. Associate Director and Project Architect Brian Szpakowski comments, ‘team working and communication between expert disciplines is a key part of the business, so the workplace had to be designed to suit.’ 

The scheme is designed to give a natural look, with finishes such as slate-effect tiles and oak flooring, and bold wall graphics, chosen to reflect the company’s brand values, namely providing safe, clean and renewable energy. The reception area features bespoke furniture, set against a dramatic graphic of a tree with its leaves belowing across an autumnal sky. The glass-fronted meeting rooms provide an injection of colour, with bold vertical stripes which correspond to the colours of the furniture inside. ‘It was about getting a balance bewteen privacy and transparency, so we tested different densities of line and the client chose about 40% privacy’, says Szpakowski. A small library area has been set aside for research and quiet work, and several of the meeting rooms are furnished with sofas and comfortable chairs to provide a more relaxed work environment.

Sustainable features include electric vehicle charging points, solar hot water, infrastructure for a wind turbine installation and responsibly sourced materials, finishes and furnishings. The scheme achieved a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating and also served as a test project for the recently developed SKA sustainability ratings systems for interiors, achieving ‘Gold’ status. 

‘This was a giant leap for the client, coming from a very traditional and subdued corporate environment to an active, bright, open and flexible workspace’ comments Szpakowski. ‘The incorporation of sustainable features, and the strong use of colours, natural materials and timeless contemporary deisgn all make this project special.’

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 09:37 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Broadway Malyan enters top 10 in AJ100 Survey

The UK’s leading architectural practices have been unveiled by the Architects Journal, with Broadway Malyan featuring in the top 10.

The annual AJ100 survey ranks the UK’s top 100 architecture practices by number of qualified architects employed. Broadway Malyan ranked 9th jumping two places from last year.

Speaking at the AJ100 awards, Paul Finch, editorial director, The Architects’ Journal said, “We can’t deny it has been a tough year, but it’s heartening to see how the AJ100 practices have weathered the storm, and I think that some of the findings are very encouraging.

“The survey remains a celebration and a showcase for global architecture, and we’re very grateful for the industry’s continuing support. My congratulations to the AJ100 practices, and to the individual category winners, each of which celebrates considerable innovation and achievement”.

Read more about the survey at http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/aj100/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 12:46 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Idea House wins Best Green Development Award at Cityscape Asia

Broadway Malyan’s Idea House scheme has won the Best Green Development (Future) award the 2010 Cityscape Asia Awards.

Idea House is an eco house prototype for leading developer Sime Darby Properties that aims to become the first carbon zero residence in South East Asia. Demonstrating the joint commitment between architect and developer in preserving the environment for future generations, the scheme promotes passive design by carefully orienting the building and minimising exposure to low angled sun, whilst large internal open plan spaces encourage cross ventilation and the maximum penetration of natural daylight.  95% grey water recycling to minimise water wastage, green roof technology, the installation of photovoltaic cells and using modular and prefabricated methods of construction further increase the project’s sustainable credentials.

Jason Pomeroy who was at Cityscape Asia in Singapore with the client to collect the award said, “We are delighted to have won this category against some stiff competition in terms of not just design, but geographic location and scale. Our reinterpretation of the indigenous Malay Kampung house tradition provided the starting point for a passive design solution that also embraced the latest in renewable and green technologies”.

Pictured from left to right: Sufian Abdullah (Sime Darby) and Jason Pomeroy (Broadway Malyan).

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 09:31 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Double win for Broadway Malyan at ICSC European Shopping Centre Awards 2010

Two Broadway Malyan schemes have scooped prizes at the 2010 ICSC Awards held in Prague last night. The ICSC European Shopping Centre Awards are the supreme awards in European retail property, granted for both new and refurbished or extended projects.

Forum Barreiro won the Best New Development (Small) category, with the awards jury describing the scheme as “a multi-functional centre that exemplifies urban regeneration, integration and modern creativity”. 

Valecenter picked up the award for Best Refurbishment and Extension for “reconfiguring the layout, maximising the potential from the existing volume and transforming the shopper environment”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 09:30 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.