Brockholes First
Thursday, 20th January 2011
Brockholes announced the first building of its kind to be awarded BREEAM Outstanding
The New Year arrived with a bang for Brockholes, a new 106 hectare Lancashire Wildlife Trust nature reserve off junction 31 of the M6. Brockholes has been awarded BREEAM Outstanding for its unique floating visitor centre, the first building of its kind in the UK to receive the status.
BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance.
BRE has recognized the quality of the visitor centre in particular, which is a ground breaking design (by RIBA award winning Adam Khan Architects, supported by Max Fordham Building Services Engineers) and which will see a 2400m2 metre squared pontoon, including a shop, restaurant, education and conference facilities float on one of the site’s large lakes.
The Designs have seen the innovative, low impact buildings reflect the vision of LWT and its stakeholders. This includes energy conservation, renewable technology, reduced water usage, composting and recycling. Work first began to bring these designs to life in December 2009, and in Spring this year Brockholes will open to the public.
Anne Selby, Chief Executive of The Lancashire Wildlife Trust said ‘We are delighted to achieve the highest possible standard for Brockholes. BREEAM was a great tool to help us develop a truly sustainable building and also provides a way to benchmark this achievement nationally . Our aim for Brockholes was to create a showcase for sustainable tourism and nature conservation across the UK and to embody the values of the Wildlife Trust in ‘living lightly on the earth’. The BREEAM award shows that we have made that aspiration a reality. ‘’
Alongside other partners including Natural England, Tubney Charitable Trust and the Lancashire Environmental Fund, the project is funded by £8.6 million investment from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) under the Forestry Commission led regeneration programme ‘Newlands’. It is intended that once the wetland opens to the public it will become a self funding attraction.
Keith Jones OBE, Regional Director of the Forestry Commission said:
“The FC and Newlands partnership are there to support Lancs Wildlife Trust and committed to making Brockholes a sustainable and forward thinking visitor destination, and we are thrilled that the visitor centre has been recognized with the BREEAM Outstanding award. Brockholes represents the future of land regeneration projects; minimising the environmental impacts throughout the development phase, and then delivering huge benefits to the communities and businesses in the long term. This ethos is absolutely core to Newlands, and to the Forestry Commission as a whole.”
Richard Tracey, Head of Environmental Quality at the NWDA, said:
“The transformation of Brockholes is a great example of how important it is to regenerate large areas of Brownfield land. We’re delighted, here at the Agency that we’ve been able to work with partners on this project and very proud of the ‘BREEAM Outstanding’ status the development has achieved.
“It is clear to see the building’s design is exceptional. Brockholes will not only encourage wildlife to thrive, it will promote tourism in the region, drawing in visitors to experience the spectacular setting, whilst growing the economy at the same time.”
END
Lindsey Poole,
Marketing and Communications Manager,
The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside.
01772 318 373
