London-based architecture practice Feilden Fowles has won the international design competition to create the National RailwayMuseum’s new Central Hall. Beating 75 others to the commission, the team will transform the visitor’s experience and integrate a new exhibition gallery, by 2025, in time for the museum’s 50th anniversary.
The National RailwayMuseum and Malcolm Reading Consultants revealed the final concepts for the new Central Hall, created by five small to medium-sized international and UK practices. Shortlisted in November 2019, the 5 teams include a collaboration between 6a architects from UK and OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen from Belgium, Atelier d’Architecture Philippe Prost from France, Carmody Groarke from the UK, Feilden Fowles from the UK, and Heneghan Peng Architects from Ireland.
“Feilden Fowles’ concept design for the dining hall subtly relates to the existing ensemble of buildings and the garden setting, and yet has the poise to convince as a showpiece,” said Professor Geoffrey Ward, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge.
“What appealed so strongly about the team’s particular approach was their openness to creating many opportunities for dialogue. We are looking forward to working with them as they develop the detailed design.”
Homerton College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, announced today the five firms shortlisted in the competition to design a emblematic £7 million ($8.5 million USD) centrepiece building to house a 300-person dining hall for the school. The finalists were selected from an original pool of 155 architects, from which 24 were selected for the longlist.
The competition, organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, is a part of the College’s wider plan to improve and expand school facilities. Homerton boasts one of the largest student communities at Cambridge, and is one of a few of the University’s colleges capable of housing all undergraduate students in on-site facilities for all four years. To be located on an attractive wooded site, the commission has the potential to determine the character of the school for years to come.
London-based Feilden Fowles has been selected to design a new visitor center for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP). To be located on the southern entrance of the park on a hillside that used to be part of a quarry, the rammed-earth building will arise from the ground. The center aims to increase the park’s capacity, which currently receives over 400,000 visitors every year, and will include a 140-square-meter restaurant, a 125-square-meter gallery space, an 80-square-meter public foyer and a 50-square-meter shop.