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Bentley Community Library

Background

A new community building is planned for Bentley; the new building will provide a new state of the art library and a new home for Bentley Beginnings Nursery on the site of the former library, neighbourhood office and toilet block on Queen Elizabeth Avenue.

Process

To find a design for Bentley Community Library a design competition was run by the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) Competitions Office. 72 international architect teams from countries including Sri Lanka and the USA entered stage one of the competition where they submitted an expression of interest to take part.

For the second stage six teams were asked to submit their designs for the library. The six teams that took part were;  

  • Aaron Evans Architects
  • Fashion Architecture Taste (FAT)
  • Featherstone Associates
  • McMorran and Gatehouse Architects Ltd
  • Panter Hudspith Architects
  • Sjolander da Cruz Architects

All six designs were placed out to public consultation with 179 members of the community commenting on their preferred design.

The winning design

In March 2008, a high quality design for the new building was selected by a jury panel of representatives from the Bentley community. The winning design by architect team Fashion Architecture Taste (FAT) was chosen for its strong design statement, landmark features and ability to set a benchmark for future design in Bentley. Two public exhibitions and consultation with Bentley Youth Club and Bentley Children’s Centre also indicated a 24.4 % preference for FAT’s design.

 

View enlarged picture (JPG 3.54MB)

Next steps

Over the coming months a detailed planning application will be prepared for the building and there will be further opportunities for residents of Bentley to contribute to the design process through workshops and events. Events will be publicised on this website and in the local press.

Contact Us

Regeneration Development Team
2nd floor, Civic Centre
Darwall Street
Walsall
WS1 1TP

Telephone 01922 652483
Fax 01922 652535
Email nugentj@walsall.gov.uk

This page was last updated on 19 June 2009