Feb 28 2008
Adam Khan Architects has won a RIBA design competition to work on the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Britain’s largest eco-regeneration scheme, announced the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and Forestry Commission (FC) today.
Adam Khan Architects "A Floating World"
Khan has designed a visitor facility for Brockholes wetland and woodland nature reserve in Preston; the 106ha Lancashire Wildlife Trust site which was purchased in 2006 under the multi million pound NWDA / FC land regeneration scheme, Newlands.
Khan’s design, entitled “A Floating World”, was selected this month from a shortlist of five by a judging panel led by design expert Wayne Hemingway. The panel believed that Khan had fully embraced the Newlands partnership’s brief to inspire and encourage people to visit the site and engage with the natural world, whilst remaining sustainable and maximising local resources.
The winning concept is based on a cluster of buildings constructed largely of wood and other sustainable materials, and it resembles an ancient marshland village. It has been designed as part of wider plans to regenerate the former quarry site into a premier visitor attraction of national and international significance.
Lancashire Wildlife Trust, NWDA and FC will now work together, and with Adam Khan Architects to explore opportunities to make the plans for Brockholes become a reality.
Brockholes sits in a key strategic location aside junction 31 of the M6 motorway. Under Newlands, there are plans to turn Brockholes into a visitor attraction that will not only be a landmark centre of excellence for recreation and wildlife, but will also act as a catalytic driver for economic and social development within the local area. If developed, Brockholes will also signpost visitors to the range of landscape, recreation and biodiversity assets present in this part of England's Northwest.
On announcement of the winner, Peter White, Head of Infrastructure & Development at the Northwest Regional Development Agency said: “This site has the potential to become an important visitor attraction for the region, building on its rich natural assets and impressive biodiversity. The Agency is supporting its development through Newlands, a wide reaching scheme that aims to reclaim brownfield land and transform it into thriving community open spaces, and has so far invested £800,000 in Brockholes. The chosen design will not only create an inspirational open space for the local community to enjoy but will also enhance a key gateway into Lancashire and attract further investment into the area and we look forward to working with our partners to progress these plans.”
In support, Keith Jones, Regional Director of the Forestry Commission said: “The Newlands partnership strives to combine quality site design with cutting edge brownfield remediation. As we work together to deliver real economic and social benefit through the Newlands projects, sensitive, responsive and innovative design must be at the heart of our approach. The Forestry Commission is pleased to announce Adam Khan Architects as the winner of the Brockholes design competition and we now look forward to working with Lancs Wildlife Trust, Adam Khan & NWDA to realise the plans for the site, and deliver a real transformation of this currently brownfield, underused space.”
Launched in the summer of 2003, Newlands is now the largest land regeneration programme in the country – and the foremost of these to use forestry as the basis for change. Several projects across the Mersey Belt area of the Northwest region are already being developed to have direct impact on the local economy and communities and in 2007, Newlands expanded to cover the whole of the Northwest region.
Newlands counts high levels of sustainability and design quality amongst its aims; the Brockholes design competition is just one of several projects within Newlands that ensure high levels of design quality, including the development of design ‘visions’ for each new site.