P206

Letts Wheeler Architects

The position, form and orientation of the new Youth Zone building is designed to protect and enhance the essential qualities of the listed bus station, with a design approach similar to that of the listed building: a simple rectangular form softened with a playful, repetitive modular cladding screen, above a glazed ground floor. The proposed building has its own strong architectural presence and provides a visually striking identity for the Youth Zone centre.

The building is conceived as a large, warehouse-like space, arranged around a central atrium: this connects the key activities and social areas together, to create a strong sense of community.

Both buildings address a new urban park, designed along pedestrian desire lines. It provides a series of discrete, human-scaled, landscaped areas that serve as a natural, green contrast to the Brutalist bus station, and ensures the space will serve as an attractive, year-round destination in its own right.