Background

The National Wildflower Centre invited submissions for an international open design competition for the design of an innovative, architecturally striking, educational, conference and seed production complex at the National Wildflower Centre, off Junction 5 of the M62 in the Liverpool City Region within the administrative Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley.

The competition process was managed by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Competitions Office on behalf of Landlife and supported by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

This project provides a unique opportunity to create an outstanding gateway site to Knowsley in the Liverpool City Region and a Science and Maths learning facility to inspire and encourage people to visit the Centre to learn about the relationships between nature, mathematics and physics. It will significantly enhance the visitor experience of the National Wildflower Centre and provide a centre of excellence, and operational hub for creative conservation, learning and innovation.

Situated in the walled garden of the 14 hectare Court Hey Park, the new complex will complement the 150 metre long Civic Trust and RIBA Award winning building developed as part of the Millennium project that established the National Wildflower Centre in 2000.

 

Click here to view the brief

 

The Competition

The Two Stage International Competition was launched on 21 November 2008. The First Stage was anonymous until after completion of the judging process; entries were given numbers by the RIBA with envelopes containing the names being opened only when the shortlist decision had been made by the Jury Panel.

The competition was widely publicised via a variety of means, including a notice in the European Journal, with 144 entries received by the 7th January 2009 deadline from all over the world, including India, Australia, Argentina, Japan and the USA. This is one of the highest numbers of submissions in recent years for a RIBA open design competition outside London and is indicative of the unique nature of the proposed complex and its location.

 

The proposed Centre is intended to be an inspirational statement that reflects the modernity and forward thinking ethos of creative conservation, highlighting links between nature and the development of recent cutting edge scientific theory.

 

It turns away from the rustic, pastoral image of nature conservation to focus on hard urban, pure science perspectives that the evolutionary dance has delivered. It will be one of the first buildings in the UK to be certified as BREEAM 'Outstanding'.

 

Landlife's philosophy for the Centre draws its inspiration from the simple observation that a single fixed angle found in nature, The Golden Section and the Fibonacci Sequence echoes through cultures, time, art, architecture and music. They are captivated that simple observations of pollen in water can create a pathway to the discovery of the atom.

 

It is a thought process that encompasses Landlife's view that 'The edge is the meeting place between order and chaos where nature wants to come to,'and it is reflected in the landscapes of Charles Jenks and engineering solutions based on natural organisms. It demonstrates how Euclidian shapes underpin nature.

 

Vision

 

The vision for the project is:

 

To transform the existing polytunnel plant production, processing area and lean-to garages into a Green Tourism Business Scheme Gold Standard conference facility, education and visitor complex, integral to which will be the wildflower production and processing operations. The complex will be an exemplar of sustainable design and build.

 

The vision provides an exciting and challenging future for science and technology education and family learning on Merseyside. By explaining complex maths and physics theory through simple wildflower structures and natural phenomena, it is hoped to stimulate curiosity and inspire confidence, challenge educational stereotyping, and cultivate creativity and innovation.

 

It creates a modern flexible visitor/educational/conference facility in a wildflower landscaped walled garden that will change people's perceptions of the conservation movement.

 

It will create a more holistic experience by integrating learning, operational and sustainability functions under one roof.

 

Click here to see the Stage 1 entries