Britain’s largest ‘green scheme’ announces design competition winner

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 [27.2.08].

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. 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.

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For all media enquiries, please contact either Claire Rajah or Faith Ashworth at Creative Concern on 0161 236 0600 / faith@creativeconcern.com clairer@creativeconcern.com

Ref No. 10383

27. February 2008

Notes to Editors:

The Brockholes 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.

Adam Khan Architects team:

Adam Khan

Timo Keller

Giovanni Petroliti

+consultants:

Hareth Pochee ( MaxFordham engineers)

Paul Toplis (Price&Myers engineers)

Alan Tovey, Richard Collis (Jackson Coles)

Martin Gamble, Jason Waddy (Mouchel Parkmann)

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.

Phase one of Newlands saw the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) approve an investment of £23 million to deliver Newlands across the Mersey Belt area. A second phase of the Newlands scheme, delivering an additional £36 million of investment, was recently announced by the NWDA (June 2007), making the combined £59 million scheme Britain's largest ever environmental programme.

Using aerial photography, the National Land Use Database and/or Unitary Development Plans, the DUN Survey, which formed the basis for the selection of Newlands sites found an astonishing 3,800 DUN sites of more than one hectare across the Northwest and of this amount, 1,600 were highlighted as brownfield sites.

The Public Benefit Recording System (PBRS) uses a range of social, economic and environmental factors from proximity to a transport corridor or Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) to a sites location to schools. It has won widespread approval across wider government and has already been used to tackle a number of other regeneration or development challenges.

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.

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. The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside,
The Barn, Berkeley Drive, Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 6BY.
Tel: 01772 324129 Fax: 01772 628849 www.lancswt.org.uk

Please ensure that the RIBA is credited when mentioning the above competition. The RIBA Competitions Office organises bespoke architectural competitions that encourage excellence in design, offer value for money, and are run smoothly from inception through to the appointment of a winning design or architect/team. The Competitions Office has vast experience of managing competitions for a diverse range of clients, project types and budgets. The competition process has produced landmark buildings/structures such as BALTIC and The Sage Gateshead, the Millennium Bridge etc. For further details please visit www.architecture.com/competitions

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For all media enquiries, please contact either Claire Rajah or Faith Ashworth at Creative Concern on 0161 236 0600 / faith@creativeconcern.com clairer@creativeconcern.com