Headquarters for the Arts Council, East Midlands (In collaboration with Ed Frith)
1992
The media department of the East Midlands Arts Council is a fee earning and somewhat independent wing of the organisation. This provided the rationale for the ‘urbanisation’ of the site, which was a typical back space behind a former market town main street, decimated by 1970’s traffic planning.
The proposal was to place the media department and main building opposite each other, on the front edge of the site creating a barrier to the ring road. Linked by a bridge at first floor level, this created a clear site edge and a public space between, with paving laid as a regional map. Cinema footage could then be projected from the main building, onto the plain surface screen of the media department opposite. Effectively, the buildings’ create a new public square at little or no cost.