Situated in a purpose built development near the River Aire, Leeds Discovery Centre houses the huge collections from the city’s museums and galleries that are not currently on show. The centre includes archaeological items from Greek and Egyptian cultures, coins, medals, firearms, armour, photographs, costumes and textiles.

Our multi-disciplinary team were faced with various challenges during this substantial development, not least of which was overcoming the physical and chemical limitations of the Discovery Centre’s location; 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.

Cost effective and environmentally conscientious solutions were utilised to overcome the issues by using an on-site material recycling strategy. This made the best possible use of material that would normally be discarded, greatly reducing the need for waste disposal and contributing to the sustainability of the project.

The internal environment provided a further challenge for the building services engineers. The storage facility has five close-control zones, each kept at precise atmospheric conditions to preserve the artefacts within it, as well as allowing conservators and visitors the ideal conditions to work with and observe them.

Extensive use of modelling also meant that we were able to thoroughly analyse the building’s performance and assess all viable options well before construction began.