Blaise Castle Visitor Centre

New café and toilet facilities within the walls of an existing cow byre at Blaise Castle needed to be welcoming by day as an attractive visitor centre but secure by night to deter vandalism.  

The Project
An artist designed a piece of work for the project and the mirrored “water wall” they devised is loved by all, played in by children and has never been vandalised – proving our belief that if you give people a beautifully designed and constructed environment they can be trusted to respect it. We’re delighted that the project has won a RIBA Award.

The engineering challenges
Our structural design challenge was to work within the existing walls without disturbing them and to stabilise the building despite minimal internal cross walls. This left us with the question of how to integrate security shutters into what needed to be a delightful and charming visitor centre design.

The solutions
The new building frame cantilevers from the ground, providing structural stability with a sense of the building “floating” over the existing walls. The security shutters were integrated into the design so that they would open to create individual “niches” for the café tables and provide wind shelter.

Client Bristol City Council
Architect CODA
M&E Engineer Building Service Solutions
Contractor Stoneform