Design Awards: now the vote for public buildings

The award category we’re looking at today is almost always found at the one of 3 points of the spectrum - appalling, invisible or a total star.

While the category we looked at yesterday is the toughest challenge of all for architects and planners alike (large scale residential developments), public buildings – or in the Sustainable Design Awards 2009 category description: ‘New-build non-residential’, can be an elephant trap or a rocket to international visibility.

You get the unforgettable symmetry yet playfulness of  Johann Otto von Spreckelsen’s Grande Arche de La Defense in Paris – which is actually a French Government office block. You get the Maggie’s Centres, unique cancer hospices, by architects like Frank Gehry (Dundee) and Zaha Hadid (Kirkcaldy).

And – sorry – but then you get the over-decorated Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood – particularly the part of it known as the MSP building. The fact of the building was historical but the architecture is not, other than as a mismanaged project from concept to construction.

So how will Argyll’s – necessarily more modest – public buildings measure up? Such buildings need to attract you, to make you want to be beside them, go into them, explore them, inhabit them – for the time being.

The finalists in the New-build non-residential category of our Sustainable Design Forum’s 2009 Awards are introduced in the thumbnail photographs above: top left is the Portavadie Marina on Loch Fyne; top right is Mull Theatre’s building at Druimfin, Tobermory; bottom left is Taigh Solas at Ledaig, Tobermory; and bottom right is St Moluag Heritage Museum on Lismore. Let’s get closer.

Portavadie Marina

The citation for Portavadie Marina is: ‘The new marina building. located on the site of the former oil platform construction base is a contemporary design that creates a landmark structure visible from both sea and road. The building has four elements: an office tower with external viewing platforms; a restaurant/bar on two levels; a utility suite with changing rooms, laundry and kitchen; and a staff block. The building has been designed to maximise the use of natural light and is constructed from a combination of stone, glass, slate and timber over a steel frame.

We’re curious about:

• whether the public is allowed on to the viewing platforms on the office tower;
• what sort of space heating there is and how sustainable it is on days the sun don’t shine;
• how the space is ventilated on days the sun do shine.

We like:

• the drama of the extended monopitched roof, as seen in the photograph at bottom left, with interesting aerodynamics;
• the seduction to climb and explore the levels and the many unique spaces in the building;
• the apparent simplicity of the slender seaward facing structure, with the ‘secret’ wing in the centre rear;
• the use of glass maximising not only light but views – eating there would be a delight;
• the secure relationship of the building to the marina itself;
• the sail-like tower;
• the provision of staff quarters – says serious organisation.

What about you? What do you think of this finalist and do you have information to share on materials?

Mull Theatre, Druimfin, Tobermory

The citation for Mull Theatre is: ‘This building was commissioned as a flexible production centre providing public access, performance space, rehearsal room, workshop and changing facilities. It sits in a woodland setting at Aros Park on the outskirts of Tobermory. The structure is a super-insulated timber frame, clad with profiled cement board made from recycled materials. Space heating is provided by air heat recovery units linked to an underfloor system’.

We’re curious about:

• the reason for using profiled cement boards on the exterior;
• the appropriateness of the concept – which we guess is based on the notion of ‘production’;
• the proportions of the interior rehearsal room / performance space;
• the characterless foyer, with its hospital-like green and cream colour scheme;
• its un-playfulness.

We like:

• the setting, with its sense of sanctuary conducive to creativity and offering adventure to visitors;
• the low energy needs, with the heavy insulation, underfloor heating and heat recovery ventilation.
• the cut-in porch offering shelter and dual perspective and light to the inside.

What about you? What do you think of this finalist and do you have information to share on materials?

Taigh Solas, Ledaig, Tobermory

The citation for Taigh Solas is: ‘This new building provides community facilities the include a meeting room, visitor centre, pubic toilets, showers and launderette. The building also provides accommodation for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and office for the Tobermory Harbour Association. the design was inspired by the image of a lighthouse, a landmark building visible both from the sea and the town.’

We’re curious about:

• the windows set only-just asymmetrically below the light room in the tower;
• how it’s heated;
• whether it’s open year-round;
• who gets to stay in the light room – or might it just, wonderfully, be the community meeting room?

We like:

• the relationship of the building to the lie of the land;
• the real or apparent thickness of the wall of the tower – seen in the doorway;
• the line of the gangway from the pontoon to the walled runway to the entrance into the  tower;
• the strong but not overstated lighthouse-ness of the building.

What about you? What do you think of this finalist and do you have information to share on materials?

St Moluag’s Heritage Museum, Lismore

The citation for the St Moluag Heritage Museum is: ‘This building, sitting near a traditional thatched house now used as a museum, is larch-clad and turf-roofed containing a shop, library, research facility and cafe. The building has been designed to sit low in the landscape to minimise its visual impact. It uses sheep’s wool for insulation and a ground source heat pump provides underfloor heating and hot water. Hardwearing natural materials are employed throughout to ensure low maintenance and running costs’.

We’re curious about:

• how they mow the roof;
• whether the cafe is year round.

We like:

• the view from above, the way the roof and the fields are almost indistinguishable;
• the great sweep of level areas at the side and front of the building – great for chilling in warm weather – nothing like a contradiction in terms;
• the light whiteness of the interior, bringing tranquillity;
• the range of sustainable materials and systems used.

What about you? What do you think of this finalist and do you have information to share on materials?

Things to consider when you vote – on this and the other categories to come

At the foot of these voting notes there is the link to online voting and the link to the addresses of previous articles we’ve published on these awards and on sustainable design.

Keep the following things in mind as you decide where to cast your vote in this category – and stand by tomorrow for more detail on the finalists in the Large Scale Residential category.

• Does the architect seem to know about and to have used sustainable design in the building?
• Does the building work with its surroundings?
• How good is the design quality?
• Does the design seem original in the way it thinks about the building and its place?
• Do the systems used reduce energy consumption?
• Are the materials used from sustainable sources?
• Would the materials be good to live with?
• Does the workmanship seem good?
• Has the building contributed to the regeneration of a previous site or of a wider area? (This couldn’t always be the case.)
• Does the design offer wider community benefits? (This too will not apply in all categories.)

Voting

To refresh your memory on features already published on this innovative Awards scheme and find other stories related to sustainable design: click on our Sustainable Design archive.

When you’re ready, this is where you click to vote - and we’ll keep this link available every day in each article we publish on this exciting initiative – until 20th November, the end of the public voting period.

Voting rules are:

• You don’t have to live in Argyll to vote.
• You may vote only once for one individual entry in any one category.
• You may vote in each category.

See you tomorrow when we look at the single finalist in the Conservation category.  There’ll obviously be no public vote on this but it will be interesting to find out about it.

In the meantime, say what you think and share what you know via the Comments box below.