Buro Happold helps transform brownfield site into state-of-the-art museum facility
Leeds Museum Discovery Centre is a classic example of how an area of industrial blight can be transformed with good contemporary design and construction.
The new Discovery Centre, in Carlisle Road, near Clarence Dock, is an advanced climate-controlled storage facility designed to house the huge collections of Leeds museums and galleries not on show at any one time. It means that museum artefacts hidden away due to lack of exhibition space will once again be accessible to the public. The centre - open to everyone by prior booking - will also provide learning and education facilities.
For the Leeds office of consulting engineer Buro Happold, the project proved a substantial engineering challenge. Buro Happold provided structural engineering, ground engineering, building services, fire engineering and access design for the facility.
The Discovery Centre has a two-storey administrative centre linked to a double-height storage facility. The storage building has concrete walls to provide thermal mass and help control the internal environment. The concrete wall also acts as a shear wall to stabilize the structure, which is essentially steel-framed with pre-cast concrete floors. A feature of the building is the 7.5m cantilever over the entrance area.
Before work could begin on the building, the ground engineering provided one of the biggest tests for the design team. The site’s former heavy industrial use had led to it becoming a wasteland. Physical constraints included large concrete and masonry foundations, brick-lined flues, cellars, extensive areas of surface concrete, service chambers and ducts - all underlain by a layer of ground containing metals and chemicals associated with the site’s former use as a foundry.
Buro Happold Associate, Damien Newell, said: “Leeds Museum Discovery Centre is a ground engineering success story. Overcoming the physical and chemical constraints posed by the site was a real challenge. However, the strategy addressed all of the many ground-related problems in such a way that it achieved massive cost savings.”
The team turned some of the initial disadvantages of the site into advantages with an on-site material recycling strategy. This solution made the best possible use of normally waste material, greatly reducing the need for transportation and removing the need for disposal.
Leeds City Council collaborated closely with Buro Happold throughout the planning process, enabling the environmental benefits of recycling to be fully embraced. Main contractor, HBG Construction, was equally enthusiastic about the reuse of materials and worked hard to ensure that the maximum amount of recycling could be achieved.
Damien added: “This collaborative approach across the whole team, including the client and external bodies, allowed the ground-related problems associated with the industrial history of the site to be overcome. This is an excellent example of how collaborative modern construction practice can be implemented to the benefit of all.”
The building services team also had a challenge as the internal environment of the Discovery Centre requires precise controls to preserve the artefacts housed within it.
The storage facility has five close-control zones, each kept at precise atmospheric conditions. This will extend the life of the artefacts – ranging from frozen yaks to firearms - and allow conservators and visitors alike the ideal conditions to work and observe them.
Building services engineer Anna Matthews said: “Each of the zones is maintained at a different temperature and humidity set point. Some are deliberately kept at a low relative humidity, like the one for the firearms and the numismatic section, in order to limit corrosion and prolong specimen life. In addition, there is a large extra low temperature freezer room (-35 deg C) to hold the yak in its container. In the zone containing the glass exhibit cases, which are alcohol filled, there is extra extraction to ensure a slightly negatively pressure in the space.
“The close co-operation of all the elements of the Buro Happold team led to a holistic approach to the design and enabled us to put together an extremely effective, economic solution. The extensive use of modelling also meant we were able to thoroughly analyse the building’s performance and assess all viable options well before construction began.”
Ends
Project team:
Client: Leeds City Council – Department of Learning and Leisure
Architect: Austin-Smith: Lord LLP
Buro Happold services: Ground engineering, structural engineering, building services, fire engineering and inclusive design consultancy
Contractor: HBG Construction
Note to Editors:
Buro Happold
Press Office and practice information at www.burohappold.com
Images of Leeds Museum Discovery Centre are available on request.
For more information, please contact the Press Office:
Louise Gaiger or Hannah Green
Tel +44 (0)1225 321764 / 320627
Email pressoffice@burohappold.com
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, inclusive design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
