14 NEWS CULTURAL & HERITAGE
Pritchard Architecture creates tribute to D-Day in Portsmouth
Pritchard Architecture has completed a project that has seen the only surviving tank landing craft from D-Day conserved and made part of the public realm on Southsea seafront, creating a “unique visitor experience and new cultural landmark in Portsmouth.” Pritchard Architecture were responsible for the contemporary new canopy and the surrounding landscape which has created a welcoming visitor entrance that “connects both physically and materially” with the adjacent D-Day Story museum. The cantilevered canopy, which follows the form of the landing craft, LCT 7074, is supported by steel columns that relate to the piers of the historic wall behind, keeping one side of the ship clear of visual distraction and providing clear uninterrupted views from Southsea Common. The canopy “maintains a simplicity that
is sympathetic to its sensitive surroundings while still having a presence that physically relates to the robustness and mass of the ship itself,” said the architects. Marrying old and new, the patina of the ship’s metal work and the texture of the historic brick wall contrast with the clean lines of modern
PRACTICE
CPMG keeps HQ in Nottingham
CPMG Architects has announced it is relocating to a new home in Nottingham, following more than two decades in another office in the city.
A Grade II listed two-storey building at St Peter’s Gate, previously a bank and a bar, will be completely refurbished by CPMG with a design that captures the company’s mission to design “places that feel better.”
Overlooking St. Peter’s Church, the premises will bring the team together in a
steelwork and tensile fabric. Visitors arrive at the ship via a ramp bounded by grass bunds and enter via the bow ramp which provides level access. A new exhibition inside portrays the “significant and largely overlooked” story of Royal Navy landing craft and their crews at D-Day. There’s new external lighting and interpretation, to enhance the experience for the 4.5 million visitors to Southsea Common, helping them to engage with the ship’s story.
The project has secured a sustainable future for this important piece of WW2 history, completing the conservation that began with its salvage in 2014, and its new location and setting allows visitors to “properly understand her place in the bigger picture of Operation Neptune.”
single studio environment with newly installed mezzanine, along with subterranean meeting spaces occupying former bank vaults. The entrance space will incorporate a co-working and coffee area.
Managing director Richard Flisher
said, “This move is a vote of confidence in our home city and in the future vitality of the city centre. Everything we do at CPMG is driven by our core values of people, purpose and place – and our move to St Peters Gate is no different.”
The practice has a flexible workplace approach, and, said Flisher, the move “gives the firm the opportunity to instigate new ways of working for staff, based on choice, and supported by
LCT 7074 was moved by barge from a ship hall at HMNB Portsmouth, where she had been undergoing conservation work. Six years after she was salvaged from the docks in Birkenhead, LCT7074 arrived on Southsea beach in August 2020 after many years of restoration. The project was made possible thanks to £4.7m of National Lottery support. Nick Hewitt, head of collections and research at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, and project director said, “From the outset the project team were thrilled by Pritchard Architecture’s graceful, innovative canopy design, which complements the ship beautifully and ties the ship sympathetically into the landscape and built heritage of Southsea Common.”
flexible workstyles and cloud-based IT systems.”
The firm has committed to the ‘RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge’ and is driving towards making all its designs zero carbon. It has designed the new offices to eliminate fossil fuel use whilst continuing to offset the remainder of operational carbon use via Forest Carbon. Flisher added, “We have been working towards a more flexible and varied approach to working for a while and there is no doubt that this has been greatly accelerated by the effects of Covid-19. Needing to move due to the expiry of the lease at the previous HQ has given us the perfect opportunity to look afresh at the way we want to work in the future.”
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
ADF FEBRUARY 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
