Winning Architects Announced For Beamish

Visitor Centre

The Joint Committee of Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum has announced that the architects for the proposed visitor centre at Beamish have now been appointed.

The chosen firm, Benson + Forsyth, is the winner of the Beamish RIBA competition that attracted responses from ninety-three international top-flight architecture firms, of which seven practices were shortlisted.

Benson + Forsyth's concept for the visitor centre will create a superb, modern, multifunctional building which hugs the landscape at the entrance of Beamish, making the most of the spectacular valley in which Beamish is set.

The firm has a first-rate track record. It designed the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Wordsworth Trust, Cumbria and the extension to the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin among many other major national projects that required sensitivity and imagination to see through from creation to successful completion.

Councillor Mel Speding, chair of the Joint Committee for Beamish, said: “We look forward to working with Benson + Forsyth to develop the concept and see it through to an inspiring, impressive conclusion. The decision to appoint Benson + Forsyth is an important milestone for Beamish and its future.”

The development of the visitor centre and surrounding area is the first step towards realising a £40 million project for Beamish. The ‘Vision' project will create important new buildings for the museum, and add new dimensions to the existing experience.

The approach of the project, and in particular, the visitor centre, is people-centred. The next step will involve detailed discussions between Beamish and the architects about specific aspects of the design. As the process moves forward all those with an interest in Beamish will be informed and updated about the visitor centre's finalised design. The new centre will offer visitors options about what they do and when they do it in friendly, attractive, relaxed surroundings. The warm welcome they receive will set the scene for the visit to Beamish itself.

Councillor John McElroy of Gateshead Borough Council, a member of Beamish's Joint Committee, praised the Benson + Forsyth designs, which he said had understood the importance of a visitor centre built for a 21 st century audience. He said: “We've got to get this right for the people who will be using it. The thinking behind these designs is superb, and the way in which they use the location to best effect is impressive. These designs for Beamish provide a spectacular new addition for a museum that prides itself on its unique approach.”

The new visitor centre is dominated by a central arrival hall, which will allow people to explore a large permanent exhibition, café with roof terrace, and shop in a generous, memorable space flooded with natural light throughout the year. The temporary exhibition area, first class education suite and lecture theatre also within the centre will drive forward Beamish's thriving education programme, and benefit the local and business communities.

The stunning wooded valley in which Beamish is set will be shown to maximum effect, without the visible intrusion of cars and car parks at the entrance. Benson + Forsyth's designs hide new 2000 space car parks behind avenues of trees. The visitors' centre will be offset to the right of the existing entrance, skewed to hide most of the building close to the wood, so that the visitor sees it on arrival, but once inside the museum, it will blend easily with the landscape.

The next stage is to take the existing concept to a final design that will form the basis for funding applications. A Member Panel is being formulated to oversee this process and ensure momentum as the project continues to grow by co-ordinating activity and decisions.

Gordon Benson of Benson + Forsyth said: “Because this was a competition governed by strict rules, we feel we are only now at the beginning of the real dialogue with the client about the visitor centre. Our clear aims from the outset were to create an entrance that performed all the requirements of a first rate visitor centre, and also acted as a transition between the outside world and the special atmosphere of Beamish.

“We have won many architecture competitions, and know that the process often results in the external appearance of the building changing as we begin discussing it in detail with the client. Our winning design for Beamish will certainly evolve over the next few months.

“At its core will be the concept we developed for a first-class visitor centre at Beamish. It has to be a memorable place in which to contemplate the site, be an exciting introduction to Beamish and be able to provide a warm welcome and access for all. Our treatment of the space, to provide a light, spacious, stimulating building which sympathetically relates to both the site and the purpose for which it is intended, will remain central to its success.

“We will use the materials that best suit the setting. As a firm we have built a reputation for being respectful of nineteenth and twentieth century buildings and the landscape. We envisage a textured stone as being most appropriate to the surroundings, and look forward to bringing forward specific ideas.”

John Holmes, Director of Regeneration and Tourism at One NorthEast is delighted that Beamish is driving forward so strongly. He said: “Beamish is an important and strategic part of the regional tourism offer. The quality of the new visitor centre will set the seal on the first impression visitors have of a unique experience and will be important to the ongoing success of the museum, and its ambitious plans.”

Chairman of County Durham Economic Partnership, Ken Jarrold, is equally enthusiastic about the project. He said: “You have to think big at Beamish. The museum deserves international recognition and displays energy and quality in its inspired interpretation of life in the North of England. The imaginative enhancements proposed for its future confidently steer it towards success as an attraction of world-class standing.”

Miriam Harte, Director of Beamish, is delighted that the visitor centre now has its architects in place. She said: “The proposed visitor centre will be a tremendous asset for everyone who visits Beamish. It is part of a £40million project at Beamish that will bring it to the forefront of museums throughout the world for the outstanding experience it offers visitors.”

The museum's vivid examples of life in the North of England in the early 1800s and 1900s have captured the imagination of visitors for decades. The plan is now to enrich existing areas of the museum with new displays, and create major new attractions to broaden visitors' enjoyment. The visitor centre is an important part of the vision for Beamish.

The announcement of the chosen architects for the visitor centre follows on from news that architects have also been selected to create an authentic period style 1913 Lamp Cabin in the colliery area, which will display Beamish's remarkable collection of miners' lamps, and illustrate the daily routine of miners a century ago.

The chosen architectural practice for the lamp cabin, Purcell Miller Tritton, is a partnership of architects, designers and historic building consultants, known for their work with the National Gallery, the Courtauld Institute Gallery, the Museum in Docklands and the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, London. Correct materials and building techniques will be used throughout the building of the lamp cabin. Visitors will be able to see for themselves the old building crafts at work as the lamp cabin is constructed.

A number of fascinating new aspects of the Colliery Village, the 1913 Town and Pockerley Manor, which have been unfulfilled aspirations for many years, will also be realised through the £40 million project.

                                      E N D S

Media contact

Jacki Winstanley, Publicity Manager tel. 0191 370 4024

Email jackiwinstanley@beamish.org.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

The visitor centre will include modern ticketing facilities which will cater efficiently for individual, family and group visitors, at all times of year, including peak visiting periods. A well-designed shop will be sited on the ground floor, as will a café with roof terrace area offering unrivalled views over the Beamish landscape. A large, light central area will house permanent exhibitions and host events.

There will also be a temporary exhibition area with a changing programme of exhibitions featuring objects from Beamish's outstanding, nationally designated, collections. A large e ducation suite and lecture theatre will offer purpose-designed rooms for schools, community groups and businesses to use throughout the year.

Benson + Forsyth Architects provides specialist advice relating to architectural and urban design work, from site selection and analysis to feasibility studies and masterplanning. The practice has extensive experience in the building design, exhibition design and fit out of complex projects, both independently and in liaison with specialist design related consultancies.

With much of its work secured in international competitions, Benson + Forsyth recognises the need to develop a close working relationship with clients.  The practice seeks at all times to offer objective professional advice while maintaining a clear focus on design quality.  The practice prides itself on securing maximum build quality within available budgets as well as providing design solutions that offer the client a technically and functionally successful project. A strength of the practice has been the concern to introduce contemporary interventions harmoniously into their immediate physical, was well as larger historical, contexts.  To achieve this, Benson + Forsyth undertakes meticulous research into the physical, cultural, and social circumstances of each project, integrating this information with a considered response to the client's brief and ambitions.

15th November 2006