Winning team named for roving Bradford 2025 venue

Carter Gregson Gray with Studio Three Sixty, Structure Workshop and Studio 4215 have been picked from a shortlist of five teams in a RIBA design competition to design ‘the Beacon’.

RIBA said that the winning design concept for the performance space, which will be erected in various locations across the borough over the Capital of Culture year, will be highly flexible so that it can be adapted and reconfigured between events and respond to different physical locations.

Shanaz Gulzar, creative director of Bradford 2025 said: “The judging process for Beacon introduced us to a wide range of talented individuals and organisations and we were blown away by their presentations during the judging process.

“Carter Gregson Gray and their partners demonstrated detailed consideration to all areas of our brief, and we were particularly impressed by their approach for how we can minimise our sustainable impact during 2025.

“We look forward to working with the project team over the coming months to finalise the design and realising a physical space that we can use to transport all forms of culture to our local communities during our year as UK City of Culture.”

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, co-founder and director of Our Building Design and RIBA architect adviser for the competition said: “All of the teams demonstrated diverse and interesting design responses, addressing aspects of the client’s brief and ambition in design, materials and practice, that stimulate debate and unpacks the meaning of decolonising spatial design.

“The winning team’s response resonates most with the client’s ambition; with creative community engagement strategies to empower and create a sense of belonging, while proposing a meaningful legacy for the communities in Bradford. The spatial design proposes ways to decarbonise, resulting in leaving the site richer in biodiversity and creating micro forests at the locations of the travelling Beacon.”

 Jack Carter of Carter Gregson Gray said: “To us, the Beacon represents an incredible opportunity to create an icon for Bradford 2025, a venue that celebrates Bradford’s heritage and its diverse communities through social gathering, performances and artistic collaborations.

“We want to use the structure of the performance space to capture and record the many stories, experiences and narratives that will emerge, and we look forward to working with the Bradford 2025 team to develop the design over the coming weeks.”

The other shortlisted teams were:

• APPARATA Architects with Arinjoy Sen and Structure Workshop
• GWP Architecture + FAUM Architecture with EMPACE and Bradford Moor Pass
• IF Design Office with Street Space Community CIC and Simple Works TLD
• New Practice with Common Wealth and Reeves & Bond

Carter Gregson Gray and its team, all based in the London area, will now work with Bradford 2025 to develop the design proposal further.