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The design team is led by architects BDP (Building Design Partnership). They are a well respected firm with considerable experience of working sympathetically with listed buildings and have built a constructive relationship with heritage organisations. Current commissions include projects at the British Museum and the Grade I listed Main Library at University College London.
They were also architects for the award winning transformation of the Royal Albert Hall and at King’s College London a Grade I listed building and working university.
The detailed designs are currently being developed by BDP architects and will be available for the public to view at an exhibition to be scheduled before detailed designs are submitted for planning permission.
Although there will be no change in the external size of the building, one of the main aims of the project is to better use the internal space so that it doubles in size and can be used more flexibly.
The initial designs suggest three floors as well as possible mezzanine levels instead of the current two, with an additional fourth floor at basement level housing the ICT teaching facility, Local Studies and improved access to specialist collections.
We are working very closely with English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society to ensure that the refurbishment does not detract or devalue the original architectural features. Any improvements, changes and new materials used need to be sympathetic to the original design and historic elements of the building will not only be preserved but also enhanced and made a feature of the new design.
We have discussed our initial plans with English Heritage and will continue consulting them and other key stakeholders as the project progresses.
We are looking at a range of options to improve access to and from the library. This includes introducing a new entrance off Phillimore Walk and a review of the external spaces around the building and how these relate to the existing street layout.
More detail on these plans will be made available when we have explored it with the architects, with our traffic consultants and with the highways department and other interested parties, including residents and users.
The proposal is to introduce a new main entrance to the Central Library off Phillimore Walk. There are a number of reasons why a new entrance is recommended.
The Library was originally designed to address a large open public space that was proposed to the north side of the building. The building was therefore designed with triumphal porches and entrances at each end of the building to address this space and provide separate access to the main library and the children’s library. This public space was, however, severely compromised by the design and construction of the Town Hall building.
Without the public space as originally planned the logic for and impact of the original entrances is somewhat lost. Added to this, the western entrance no longer forms part of the entry sequence and has degenerated into a space used by skate boarders. The eastern entrance, whilst in use, is somewhat compromised by the addition of a poorly detailed access ramp for the ambulant disabled.
The eastern entrance hall is wholly unsuited to accommodating functional requirements of an entrance into a modern library or the aspirational requirements of the brief to make the entrance more inviting and less imposing.
Entry at one end of the building, and at the ground floor level, also complicates initial orientation, understanding and subsequent access to other parts of the building.
Whist it would be possible to access new public facilities in the lower ground and basement levels from the eastern entrance at ground floor level, experience demonstrates that multi level buildings work best when one enters at the lower level and move up, as opposed to entry at a mid level with movement both up and down.
When accessed from the High Street the eastern entrance is barely visible and the access route is convoluted and difficult for people to understand. For the ambulant disabled, access is via the long incline up Horton Street (effectively climbing one storey level), past the entrance steps leading directly to the entrance, up onto the Town Hall piazza and round the far side of the entrance porch before accessing the entrance doors via the ramp.
A new entrance on Phillimore Walk will
Yes. Although we have limited ramped access to the library at the moment, the lifts are really too small to allow wheelchair access. We will have much larger lifts in the new library and introducing a new entrance on the lower ground floor will also improve access.
Yes. As with most modern buildings, minimising energy consumption is an issue and clearly a new build can achieve this to a much greater degree than an old building. The new design will reduce consumption by replacing old, inefficient systems with new lighting, electrical systems, heating and cooling. Most significantly, though, creating limited openings in the floors will provide natural ventilation to the majority of areas of the building.
One of the additional proposed areas of work for the scheme is double glazing, which would significantly improve solar and thermal control, together with increased levels of thermal insulation and provision of solar collectors at roof level.
BDP have undertaken initial studies, which have shown that these measures will result in a more energy-efficient building. More detailed designs are being produced and as part of that, levels of energy use will be defined through extensive computer modelling.
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