Design
Hadrian Awards Exhibition – ‘Excellent Buildings in the North’
Regionwide
This small exhibition illustrated the seven projects that received Hadrian Awards in 2003. They included a house extension, a bridge, a Metro station and a converted church. Email us for a copy of the exhibition brochure, which contains details of the award-winning projects, the award-winning architects and the four venues where the exhibition was shown – Middlesbrough, Alnwick, Hexham and Gateshead.
Below are brief descriptions about each of the seven awarded schemes.
St. Michael's R.C. Primary School, Houghton-le-Spring AWARD
Darbyshire Architects
The school for 210 pupils was constructed as a replacement for old and substandard premises and the brief was finalised after intensive consultations with the governors, the local authority and staff. The main aims of the design, whilst responding to the function of the brief, was to produce a school that was easily understandable, made maximum use of daylight and ambient energy to reduce running costs and above all stimulated children through scale, form and colour.
River Irthing Footbridge, Willowford/Birdoswald AWARD
Napper Architects
Napper Architects worked with Arups the engineers to design a footbridge over the River Irthing linking the fort at Birdoswald to the remains of the Wall at Gilsland. The brief, although superficially simple, was complicated by the fact that the site was historically and archaeologically sensitive. The bridge was the first of a suite of smaller bridges constructed on the wall and which has also gained Millennium Product Status.
The Old Vicarage, Middleton-in-Teesdale AWARD
Simon Hacker, Create Chartered Architects
The outbuildings in the confined and over-shaded courtyard were demolished down to a common datum. A new family room became the focus for the entire house, linking the previously remote kitchen and dining room, whilst a new upper-level reading deck afforded views into the surrounding countryside. The outward simplicity of the resultant building is derived from a deep reading of the building's past.
No.1 Ferndene Court , Gosforth AWARD
Reid Jubb Brown Partnership
An un-prepossessing 1960's flat roofed house has been converted into a spacious and ultra modern home. The project was designed to be sympathetic to its surroundings whilst satisfying the client's requirement for a contemporary home. This resulted in an innovative design which removed the rear of the house and replaced it with a two-storey steel framed conservatory.
St Peter's Metro Station, Sunderland AWARD
Reid Jubb Brown Partnership
The architectural challenge was to design a structure which minimised the physical impact on the site, a listed viaduct, to provide a light and airy environment in which passengers would feel safe and secure and which would be acceptable to English Heritage. Glass and steel were chosen as the materials which would best meet these constraints. The result is a modern station perfectly in tune with its surroundings.
Sunderland Winter Garden, Sunderland COMMENDATION
Napper Architects
The brief was to create a winter garden for the 21 st century using modern technology to reinvent a much neglected building type. The building contains three distinct habitats linked by water filled pools and rills, which start from a dramatic water sculpture and lead out, visually, to the existing lake in Mowbray Park immediately south of the building.
Four Clocks Centre, Bishop Auckland COMMENDATION
John Niven Architects
The client, Bishop Auckland Community Partnership, required the provision of purpose-designed suites for full-time community organisations as well as a series of more flexible rooms. A new 3-storey high wall bisects the entire length of the original plan diagonally, creating 3 storeys of cellular rooms and accommodation on one side of the building, whilst allowing the full height and form of the original building to be retained and appreciated on the other.
