SCALA Civic Building of the Year Competition, 2006
Major Project category: Runner up
Brighton and Hove City Council
Jubilee Library
This project is the centrepiece of a regeneration scheme that stitches back together the fragmented streets of the North Lanes area near the city centre.
Two previous attempts to build a new library had foundered during the planning process so, when the Council had to use PFI for the third attempt, it made design quality a central feature of the tendering procedure. Developers bid for the whole of the Jubilee Street site, with the prospect of cross-subsidising the library with revenue from other developments. The scheme was chosen after an extensive public consultation exercise and has since been praised as a rare example of high design quality within the PFI system.
A small square in the centre of the site provides the setting for the library and a venue for public art, performance and the Brighton Festival.
Enclosed activities are around three sides and the main reading room/reference library in the centre, where it strikes up a direct relationship with the square.
Eight free-standing concrete columns with fan-shaped heads support the middle floor and the roof, defining the character of the space and greatly add to the building’s thermal mass. The intention is that this should feel like a civic building of importance - a place of repose and presence.
The engineering supports this architectural intention. The thick walls surrounding the central space contain air ducts from the roof-level plantrooms, feeding air through voids in the concrete floor slabs. In winter, warm air is re-circulated back to the plant rooms; in summer, the extract system is driven by three centrally-located wind towers, adding spice to the skyline of a city know for its Regency domes and minarets.
- Architect:
- Bennetts Associates
- Architects with Lomax
- Cassidy & Edwards
- Mechanical and Electrical Engineer:
- Fulcrum Consulting
- Structural Engineer:
- SKM Anthony Hunts
- Landscape Architect:
- Land Use Consultants
- Main Contractor:
- ROK
