News & Reviews

Accolade for Saltholme Wildlife Park

4th June 2009

Categories: Visitor News

The RSPB’s new £4.5m Saltholme Wildlife Reserve and Discovery Park, near Middlesbrough, has won not only the Constructing Excellence North East Award for Sustainability, but also an equally prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award.

RSPB Saltholme wins RIBA Award The groundbreaking wildlife conservation and tourism project is expected to welcome over 100,000 visitors a year and is a massive undertaking by the RSPB and the Teesside Environmental Trust working together to transform 1,000 acres (380 ha) of former industrial land into a world-class nature reserve which will be the largest wetland creation project in the North of England. It will be one of the largest tourist attractions in the region, providing visitors with an unique opportunity to see wildlife and adding over £1m per year to the local economy.

The Constructing Excellence award, one of 11 categories presented on Friday 8^th May in Newcastle, was the first for the Visitor Centre at the heart of the Park, an innovative building which fuses 21st Century architecture to both modern and traditional materials and environmental principles of sustainable regeneration. The RIBA award followed within days and was one of seven presented in Newcastle on Wednesday 20 May.

Designed by the Newcastle-based architects Jane Darbyshire & David Kendall Ltd (JDDK), the Centre features a futuristic structure which lifts out of the lakeside landscape through a feather-like roof structure, rising from a single ground storey to a first floor panoramic viewing cafe. Whilst the huge areas of fenestration and the zinc-clad roof panels, which provide solar shading and use alumium clad roof panels, represent the very cutting edge of building materials, the Centre also features an internal rammed earth wall to control both internal humidity and temperature.

One of the main design criteria of the initial brief was that the building should achieve a BREEAM (British Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) accreditation of Excellent with another being that it should be as low maintenance as possible. As a result, the structure has been designed on sustainable principles with the design encouraging the stack effect in which cool air is drawn in from the outside and up through the central atrium of the building, providing natural ventilation and removing the need for mechanical aids. In addition, rain water is recycled and used as ‘grey’ water systems for toilet flushing.

Externally, a timber walkway and pedestrian swing bridge over the water course provides echoes of earlier technology whilst also ensuring security for the building.

Kevin Bayes, RSPB Saltholme Project Manager, commented, “Saltholme is one of the RSPB’s current three Urban Gateway projects, where important nature reserves are located close to large urban populations, and is an extremely important area for migratory birds. The reclamation of this superb wetland area will give the people of the North East a world class facility right on their doorstep!”

“Together with our partner organisation, the Teesside Environmental Trust, we were always concerned about any building in such an environmentally sensitive area, so chose the JDDK design because it was not only a visually striking building and had clearly answered the brief, but also included very practical sustainable systems. It’s a superb building at the very centre of this exciting project.”

Alison Thornton-Sykes, Principal Designer with JDDK, added, “We’re naturally delighted that the project has received these awards and now goes on to represent the North East in the national Constructing Excellence Awards and the national RIBA awards. However, just as importantly, the feedback we’re getting from our clients, the RSPB, is very positive with visitor numbers well above expectations, so we’re delighted!”