GLOUCESTER RENAISSANCE
There is much more to the reinvigorated Shire Hall than a striking new look
There is so much more to the new-look Shire Hall than aesthetics. The Brutalist, concrete 1960s façade of Gloucestershire County Council’s home has been replaced, thanks to the striking new look designed by city-based Quattro Design Architects. Given the task of making a flagship building in the centre of the county capital fit for the 21st century – Quattro have excelled themselves. Delivered in partnership with Gloucestershire County Council and Kier Construction, the distinctive metallic wrap is not only a smart and contemporary look, it’s a clever building too. Not only is it designed to be unfriendly to seagulls, it also generates a lot of its own electricity. Quattro’s long-standing sustainability ethos ensured that energy efficiency principles were woven into the design early on, to ensure the building naturally stays cool in the summer and retains heat in the winter. Mike Court, a Gloucestershire-born and bred director of Quattro, can now look back with pride at the team which steered the design and bask in the satisfaction of a job well done. Not that it was an easy project. “There are essentially three buildings with very different characteristics and complexities all sat within the Gloucester City conservation area,” Mr Court said.
“Attempting to bring these together and create a coherent character that met the tough brief, and that were fit for the future was always going to be a fantastic challenge. “From the nine-storey steel frame building that dominates the Gloucester skyline to the curved, 1960s Brutalist concrete cast, bridge building crossing Bearland Road, it was fascinating to peel back the layers of the past to see how differently things were done back then. “The second key aspect, and one of the key reasons why we were successful in winning the project, was that we considered a way of doing the work while keeping the council in situ. “Along the way, we supported the council in looking at all avenues to achieve best value and what Kier has delivered as a result is outstanding. “There was a wonderful collaborative spirit around the project, where everyone felt they were creating a legacy for the city.” To passers-by, the most striking thing about the new look is the two-tone metallic panels that clad the skin of the building. The subtle use of the colour variation means that the building is sensitively integrated into its historic setting, with a colour palette that echoes that of the city. Visually the building also appears to have shrunk in height, by rebalancing the proportions of the design on each elevation and actually increasing the height of the eaves slightly.
84 | July 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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