Preston Bus Station by SANE
Shortlisted entry, 2nd place in the Preston Bus Station International Competition
Jury comment: "We would like to confirm that the panel felt your scheme was full of joy and a real celebration of the great building which is Preston Bus Station. It was agreed that your scheme should be Highly Commended for its architectural flair and great empathy with the listed building"
Only a couple of years ago, one of the reasons given for the necessity of demolishing Preston Bus Station was 'it's in the wrong place!' One of the many things noticeable, however, if you actually visit the Bus Station, is it's in exactly the right place for most of the things genuinely worth seeing in Preston, genuinely specific and unique to it. An overhead walkway connects it easily to RMJM's early 1970s Guild Hall, whose James Stirling-style combination of industrial red brick and Constructivist cantilevers contrasts well with the Bus Station's sublime sweep; and just to the south, is the Victorian covered market, and most importantly of all, the other building in Preston that is truly first rank – the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, an austere, monumental Greek revival building worthy of Schinkel.
The problem always was, though, that the Bus Station's forecourt made connection between these structures much trickier than their close proximity would imply. Put bluntly, wandering between the Harris and the Bus Station, you'd stand a good chance of getting run over. Not the least interest of this proposal is the fact that a connection is made between these structures.
The Bus Station itself continues, albeit reduced, at the side facing away from the city centre. A square lined with trees runs out from inside the Bus Station's high, airy concourse, which is turned over to art exhibitions (in an analogue to the Harris' pre-modern art collection) towards the civic heart of Preston.
However, this isn't treated in the cheaply pompous mock-Victorian manner so often popular in towns like this, but informally, with chairs left around as if in someone's garden. Connected to this is the pitch of a youth centre, and then, the structure of the youth centre itself, which cuts this square off from the ramps leading to the car park, making a viable civic space out of what had been the Station's forecourt. That youth centre, meanwhile, subtly repeats the rippling curves of Keith Ingham's original station design, in a laconic form that doesn't attempt to compete with the Brutalist grandeur of the original, but doesn't ignore or patronise it either.
When the Bus Station was slated for demolition and denounced by local politicians, there was always the implication that it was a little too good for Preston, that it had ideas above its station, as it were. In combining the connection to those parts of the city that had higher ambitions, in refurbishing and extending the ideas of the original building, and in creating a genuinely public purpose for the currently underused expanses of Ingham's generous design, there's the possibility that the civic pride embodied in these buildings might finally be rescued from decades of neglect.
By Owen Hatherley
THE PRESTON BUS STATION
Our strategy for the Preston Bus Station aims to create an entity that can function for the community in the same way the Youth Centre functions for the children: offering a range of cultural and commercial activities that offer the possibility of connecting inside the community or the to achieve some kind of professional potential (art gallery, co-working space). In this way the space reinvents the initial function of connectivity between different cities at a local level, connecting the people in different activities and projects.
The architectural intervention in the bus station will be minimal in order to preserve the unique character of the building. The West side will become an open public space where various pop-up activities can develop. At mezzanine level in the south part a co-working space will be arranged. This space will function in the same logic as the rest of the functions in the core: café/ restaurant, hairdresser etc. At ground floor level, on the south side, there will the coach station.
In order to preserve the purity of the plan there will be no other enclosure of the open space. The space will be furnished with chairs and tables that can be freely used by any of the core functions: as a sitting area for the café, as a working area for the co-working space etc. Also in the week-ends pop-up stores in the form of small stands can be arranged.
In this way the space will reflect the community needs, and will provide a way for the users to choose the activities they want for it.
An art gallery will be functioning in parallel with the rest of the program. The art gallery could function as a contemporary informal extension of the Harris Museum, offering the option of display for the local artists. In special occasions could function together with the Arts and Crafts Informal Area of the Youth Zone, also placed in the existing building, and could display the children’s works. In this way all the community will be connected with the children’s and local artist’s works in a less intimidating, more contemporary set sett than the Harris Museum.
The co-working space should offer the possibility of remote working for the community or even, if the local University or Authorities get involved, it could offer some incubator opportunities for promising start-ups. With the involvement of local authorities or different NGO’s the bus station can become an important space for the community.
The link with the city is very important, that is why we proposed to extend the exterior landscape inside by placing a row of trees in the interior space. The trees will also function as a phono-insulation by dividing the space allowing us to keep the original choice of materials without sacrificing comfort. In the coach station area concentric benches will be designed around the trees, offering seating area and a comfortable environment.
Above the entries the Perspex cassette will be replaced with LCD panels that will run people’s social media messages that contain a particular hashtag, offering in this way the option for connectivity around the bus station project for the whole world.
THE YOUTH ZONE PLUS
The architectural logic of the Youth zone very simple: we searched for a type of interaction between the old and the new that would not alter the bus station pure lines while still establishing a connection.
We proposed a 2000 m2 curved slab, parallel with the curve of the bus station façade that slides into the existing building at mezzanine level and creates a 500 m2 protected terrace. Three meters height transparent glass parapets will ensure the children’s protection.
The slab forms a wide open flexible space in the ground floor that can be used as a recreation area but also to host parties and events.
The curved terrace offers a place for the contemplation of the bus station while also opening the Youth Center interior towards the city
The project is developed on three different axes:
- an arts oriented one, in the existing space of the Bus Station. The Informal Arts and Crafts Area could even occasionally extend in the whole eastern half of the Bus Station for public exhibitions of the children’s work.
- The sports axe develops parallel with the arts axe and extends into the park with the exterior Kick Pitch and the Skate Park
- The third axe starts in the ground floor with the other two and develops vertically on floors two and three with Plus Partners Accomodation and the Staff area.
The stairways located at each end of the sports hall and an elevator on the north side provides vertical transportation for the hundreds of children that will pass through the building every day. The spaces are arranged so that children will generally be able to use the stairs, climbing or descending no more than two stories between the ground floor and the Sports/ Arts or Counselling areas.
From the changing facilities level an external corridor leads to the Kick pitch and the Skate Park area. Both spaces are partially underground and only accessible from the inside of the Youth Center for the children’s protection. This solution also allows more permeability for the users of the bus station and the park.
THE PARK
The landscape is essentially a series of superposed layers, networks of objects that function together to offer identity, public functions and vegetation. The trees network will be superposed with small public squares, public art and a lightening network that function in parallel.
In a mostly mineral environment the trees (silver birch) are aligned in a rigid network ordered after the position of the existing buildings. It is an artificial landscape that respects the initial function of the area: a busy bus station with almost no vegetation, an industrial decor. The tree network, extended inside the bus station, will function as a link between the proposed new building, the existing building and the exterior public space.
The floor finishing in the park will be a black natural stone (black volcanic granite) in order to achieve a visual unity with the interior PVC floor of the bus station. In this context the silver birches white barks will create a contrast with the black pavement, similar to the monochrome contrast of the bus station. A network of floor spotlights will accentuate the rigidity of the grid.
The public squares network can accommodate public gatherings, small crowds, festivities, speeches, dancing etc. The squares will be around 24 m diameter, and will be intimate enough to host various types of activities. A larger public space, will accommodate larger public events.
In some of the squares slightly raised platforms will form a bandstand where streets musicians and local bands can play. Around the bandstands paved surfaces for dancing will be arranged.
The small squares will function as pockets of activities and will be placed toward the bus station so the exterior activities can extend inside or the interior program can extend outside if necessary.
A network of sculptures will double the trees network realizing a playful dialogue with the city. Small box spaces on wheels will accommodate the technology need: one side of the boxes will be an LCD screen that can easily be transformed in a pop-up cinema or a place where the community can gather to watch sporting events.
The networks are reduced to an elementary presence with no scenographic effects and reflect the logic of the most conventional geometry possible: that of the grid. Devoid of any figurative or individualistic feature, guaranteeing it will perform in the most rational uniform way, the grid will insert an exemplary form into the instable field of human interactions.
300 metal chairs can scatter freely in the park. They are not an automatic repetition of the same ready-made basic unit but the possibility of a certain narrative, the possibilities of diverse typologies that create and dissolve freely because the users can move everywhere.
They provide a method to connect for the participants in the dialogue, not based on pre-established social constructs but almost at random, on a voluntary basis. They become in fact abstractions of the invisible forces that shape the city, in the radical and systematic confrontation of the individual versus the group.
STRUCTURAL DESIGN
We proposed a structural volume capable of supporting the stresses coming from the curving terrace / roof while floating over the sports hall in the ground floor
The structural design is based on two principles:
- a mixed system for the main body that combines a classic 3,2m column beam grid and a staggered Vierendeel Truss system to float over the sports hall.
- a tensile 55 cable system to suspend the 700 concrete façade/roof modules and connect the two buildings
Besides structure, the curved slab will integrate all the systems of the building: Mechanical, Electrical, data networks, natural ventilation shafts, acoustic layer and lightening. All the building systems will be centralized in the underground under the sports hall locker-rooms and distributed through this curved Slab while being optimized by the BMS to produce the ideal environment.
The team
architectural design: SANE architecture
structural design: Yasuhiro Kaneda Structure
consultant: Owen Hatherley
graphic design: Adrian Isaia
sustainable development: Coda Strategies
cost control: Daniel Nistorescu
