Sustainability highlights
First Light Pavilion was designed to seamlessly integrate into the natural landscape and impact the UNESCO heritage-listed site as minimally as possible.
Highlights include:
- Non-standard construction techniques enhance the Pavilion’s thermal and energy efficiency.
- There was a strong drive to minimise materiality in developing the concrete dome, which was designed and — in collaboration with structural engineering company Atelier One, the University of Nottingham and the University of Leeds — structurally engineered to be as thin as possible.
- To minimise disruption to the site’s existing ecology, the topsoil that was stripped off the site during construction was tested and stored on the neighbouring property and reinstated onsite at the end of construction, covering the roof dome as the growing medium for the green roof.
- Located on a wet site with a very high water table, the Pavilion’s water run-off is fully managed and distributed to a newly created attenuation pond, which then links to a series of existing ponds that run through the site.
- Original materials have been reused in the First Light Pavilion. Sections of the first 1957 observation dish from the Lovell Telescope were integrated by our collaborators and exhibition designers Casson Mann to form part of the backdrop and projection surfaces in the exhibition.
Awards
- 64th annual Civic Trust Awards
- 2021 North West Regional Construction Awards (Innovation Award)
