Industry News
FUNDING
£600,000 boost for University of Leicester’s New Galleries Appeal
The University of Leicester’s plans to provide the city with a new home for contemporary visual arts have taken a significant step forward with the news that Arts Council England has agreed to provide £600,000 towards the capital costs of the project. The New Galleries Wing will be
an extension to Embrace Arts, the University’s inclusive, multi-use arts venue at the Richard Attenborough centre on Lancaster Road. It will provide a number of interlinked spaces, all open to the general public, to showcase the best in contemporary visual art and sculpture. It is hoped the new wing will be
opened by early 2015, subject to the University of Leicester raising the remaining £900,000 of the £1.5 million cost. The extension to Embrace Arts will
provide an additional 400 sq m of gallery space, increasing the size of the building by 50 per cent. The building was the result of a campaign led by Lord Attenborough. “We are one of only two purpose-
built accessible arts centres in the East Midlands for the promotion of arts and disability,” said Embrace Arts co- director Michaela Butter. “This new development will similarly be fully accessible and use the latest in tech- nology, enabling disabled and non- disabled audiences to enjoy the very best of the contemporary arts in new and exciting ways.” Eric Rosoman of The Great
Central Gallery & Studios said: “This new gallery space will help to bridge the gap between local artist-run spaces and museum exhibitions. We look forward to their exhibitions with interest and excitement.”
COLLEGE
Transformation of Kidderminster College entrance promotes learning
In 2012 Kidderminster College approached architectural and interior designers McAndrew Watts to trans- form the entrance area of the building into an inspirational learning space for students. The design brief that McAndrew
Watts received from the college was a no holds barred brief to transform the environment for students. Founder of McAndrew Watts, Ian
Watts commented on the brief: “The first thing we gauged when we entered Kidderminster was that the reception space was very dark and intimidating with very little natural daylight. On top of this the area was simply trying to do too much; it was operating as a recep- tion area, canteen, a learning resource area, a waiting room, and a support and information desk. It was just like being in a bus station rather than being a social space for students and staff to interact. Space has a great a psycholog- ical impact on you. If it is a bright or intimate space it automatically changes your feelings and emotions about the environment. We set out to inspire and create enthusiasm in the students through the space we created.” The ideas for the redesign were
quite radical. The building was effec- tively a courtyard around an external space with a tensile fabric structure
GOVERNMENT
RIBA welcomes government action to enable pension fund investment in new homes
The government have announced that it will permit councils to invest twice as much of their pension fund assets in building more homes and infrastruc- ture from 1 April. The announcement made by Local government Minister Brandon Lewis on March 8 directly reflects the recommendation made after a year-long study by the Future Homes Commission. The Commission proposed that money from local authorities’ pension funds should be used to create a £10 billion Local
Housing Development Fund, which would build mixed-tenure housing in communities suffering from a shortage without increasing the government deficit. Following a consultation the Government has decided that the current limit of 15 per cent was an unnecessary obstacle for authorities seeking to invest in infrastructure. The rules have been changed to enable councils to invest through limited partnerships up to thirty per cent of their holdings.
filling the space at the upper levels. The central core on the ground floor consisted of the reception with a flat solid roof and there was no focal point to the building as a whole. McAndrew Watts decided that this needed to be taken out to open up the whole area. They raised the roof so every window would look onto the space and replaced the solid roof with a glazed structure. This transformed the whole building enabling natural light to spill down through the centre of the building, penetrating the corridors that run around the area. To maximise the effect of the natural lighting, the finish was kept to a blank neutral canvas to play on this.
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