Design Engine

Civic Trust Award for Performing Arts Studios

James Ferrero — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:00:44 +0000

We are delighted to have received a 2012 Civic Trust Award for our Performing Arts Studios at the University of Winchester.
Richard Jobson, David Gausden and Richard James attended the award ceremony in Edinburgh.

Radley College awarded planning consent

James Ferrero — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:46:34 +0000

Detailed planning consent has been awarded by the Vale of White Horse District Council for our new building comprising a variety of academic and pastoral facilities in the heart of Radley College, Oxfordshire. The £5.3 million scheme will present a significant milestone for the School, now in its 165th year, providing much needed space for its expanded teaching and social facilities. The new 2,100 sq m development will include: the Sewell Gallery – a space to accompany Radley’s renowned art department, new centralised teaching spaces for the history and politics department, a formal entrance for the design and technology department, and a social space suitable for parent rendezvous, where the students can relax outside of the confines of their boarding houses.

Radley College

James Ferrero — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:47:02 +0000

In December 2009, Radley College approached Design Engine to join a shortlist of six practices in competition for their new teaching/social and art gallery complex on the Clock tower Square site, within the heart of the campus.

Design Engine’s winning scheme consists of ten history and politics classrooms, a social centre and café and extended art teaching facilities including a new double-height gallery over 2100 sq. metres.

The architecture of this £5.3 million scheme not only has to reconcile the numerous existing buildings that surround the site, including the Grade 2 Listed rackets court, but it also has to provide fluid connections internally between these buildings of varying internal floor heights.
A key consideration was to achieve a building of a timeless quality, which sits and functions in harmony with its neighbouring buildings.

The design is principally of brick with zinc roofs and ventilation towers to facilitate natural ventilation throughout. The colonnades to both Clock tower Square and the green area facing H-Social (a boarding house) are important features which are intended to order the buildings appearance by borrowing the structural grid dimensions from the adjacent rackets court whilst also providing much needed areas of covered external circulation.

The project has commenced on site with enabling works and the main contract is due to commence in March 2012, with completion in June 2013.

Planning approved for new University of Winchester building

James Ferrero — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:21:32 +0000

Planning consent has been given by Winchester City Council for a new library and teaching building at the University of Winchester’s King Alfred Campus. This is the fifth project Design Engine has worked on with the university and will be completed in time for the commencement of the 2012 academic year.

Aerial view of the Les Beaucamps High School site

James Ferrero — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:58:26 +0000

Redhayes Bridge

James Ferrero — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:05:01 +0000

Working with engineers Parsons Brinckerhoff, Design Engine has won the British Construction Industry (BCI) Local Authority Award for Redhayes Bridge across the M5 in Exeter. It was also a finalist in the ‘Small Civic Engineering Award’ and “Regeneration Award’ categories. The £3.75m foot bridge was built by Carillion for Devon County Council and reinstates a former public right of way on an existing east-west route that was lost when the M5 was built in the mid-1970s. The alignment of the bridge is designed to connect separated sections of both the National Cycle Network and the Exeter Walking Map on opposite sides of the motorway, linking the proposed Exeter Science Park to a radial route to Exeter’s City Centre.

Charterhouse Dining Hall Completion

James Ferrero — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:45:12 +0000

The new ‘Fletcherites’ dining hall was completed on time and budget for the new 2011-12 academic year. Designed by Design Engine and built by Total Construction, the £1.1 million scheme involves a new 2150 sqm extension to Richard Gilbert-Scott’s seminal dining halls, as well as the refurbishment of existing kitchens and back-of-house areas. This is one of a series of projects Design Engine are designing for the School, which celebrates its 400th anniversary this year.

Oxford Brookes University

James Ferrero — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:02:02 +0000

Site works are ongoing at the Headington campus, with below ground works nearing completion. More information on the project and live progress of the construction via webcam can be viewed here.

Greyfriars Theatre, Ringwood

James Ferrero — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:43:50 +0000

This formed part of a submission for an invited competition. The scheme offers transparency towards a potentially revitalised civic space between the Library and new Arts Centre. This unites two public cultural entities for Ringwood and turns an area given to servicing and inefficient car parking into a pedestrian priority area where the activities and achievements of the new Centre can be showcased to the public. The space can be seen as a level, accessible plaza which could host community events and markets as well as providing a more welcoming location for the Mobile Library. Conceptually, the indigenous red brick of Ringwood (with particular reference to the Georgian splendour of Greyfriars) is moulded from a ground plane into the theatre ‘crucible’ itself. A support wing acts as an activity and sound buffer to the neighbours, whilst a semi-transparent skin envelopes the theatre to allow total flexibility and free movement internally.

World War II Museum, Gdansk

James Ferrero — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:32:02 +0000

Our entry for the international WW2 Museum competition was designed in collaboration with Heyne Tillett Steel (Structural Engineers) and Grontmij (Environmental Engineers). Visitors descend into the exhibition space from a new public forum in a controlled way and in preparation for the experiences ahead. The main exhibition is a black box, where artificial lighting and sound effects will play a significant part in the visitors’ experience. A single connected rest zone allows access directly from the exhibition rooms, and visitors using this space can also re-orientate themselves by looking up through the glass ceiling to the oversailing roof above. The west end of the rest zone includes large steps, allowing people to sit, relax and contemplate, but these are also a direct reference to the West Platte bunker steps. The roof dominates the site, acting as an ‘umbrella’ and ‘parasol’ to the unique public space, harnessing energy via photovoltaic cladding. This space is completely open and free to be used by any resident or visitor to Gdansk. The space is deliberately uplifting and in total contrast to the exhibition rooms housed below your feet. The roof design is interpreted from the lost streets and buildings on this site. The remains have been mapped and, through a series of 3D manipulations, leave their impression on the underside of the canopy. Thus, this huge soffit offers the Museum a memory of the people lost from the area and the ground it is built upon.