PROJECT REPORT: CULTURAL, CIVIC & FAITH BUILDINGS 25


functional spaces, sustainability and speed to market were also highly important. Aside from the fi nished design, the collaboration resulted in the development of a structural system that would tick all the necessary boxes – operational needs, sustainability, and speed to market.


The latter was especially important given the “unprecedented requirement” for new fi lm and television studio space in the UK at the time. Sustainability was high on the client’s list of priorities, as was acoustics – particularly given the site’s location adjacent to the M4 motorway. To address these, the team asked themselves the most basic questions: “Asking what we need, why we need it, and who it’s for at the beginning of a project is key to challenging preconceived ways of design and construction,” says Lebidineuse. “We developed an innovative twin wall structural solution that facilitated speed of construction by reducing the number of materials and trades required on site.” This twin wall system saw a steel frame initially constructed onsite, then the external face of the interior wall was built, acting as a weatherproof layer and therefore meaning work could begin internally at a much earlier stage than what would have been possible with other construction methods. “The outer and inner skin of the twin wall is then built out at the same time, allowing the concrete fl oor to be poured and M&E installation to start before the fi nal envelope is fi nished,” Lebidineuse explains. The result is a “quick to build” 800 mm thick wall which is “packed with insulation, and provides fantastic acoustic and thermal properties.” Helping towards the project’s sustainability goals, the system components and materials can be dismantled, recycled, repurposed and reused in the future. It also has the added benefi t of improved thermal and acoustic properties, over the concrete which is traditionally used to build large studios.


Safety and privacy were also given a lot of thought, with the constraints of the busy environments that would be found in the fi nished studios. “Acoustic buffers, visual privacy, limitation of access and of course safety were fundamental within the masterplan, landscape and architectural design,” Lebidineuse says. “Much of the design process involved careful consideration of how people would move across the site – the division of pedestrians


ADF JULY/AUGUST 2025


and vehicles, and how to ensure that multiple productions can run onsite while maintaining the highest levels of security.” While considering those who would be working on the site once fi nished, the team simultaneously wanted to create a well- integrated scheme with minimal impact to surrounding communities as well. The local authority planning department and local community were engaged at a “very early stage,” explains Lebidineuse, to ensure the design “could evolve to refl ect wider community needs and concerns.” One such example of how the design evolved to consider its neighbours was the positioning of the two largest buildings at the centre of the site to “minimise visual impact on nearby residential developments.” To support the necessary fl exibility, the team included studios and facilities in varying sizes to accommodate different scales of productions. They also included multifunctional spaces that could, for example, be utilised as an offi ce one day and a workshop space the next. “Even spaces between – and some of the landscape surrounding the buildings, including the nine acre fi lming backlot – can be used to create content,” adds Lebidineuse. “This means the site can appeal to the widest range of productions and host multiple productions at various stages of fi lming, all at one time.”


Some design decisions were also made to


reference the vernacular of agricultural buildings


WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK


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