National Wildflower Centre

The British National Wildflower Centre invites submissions for an international open design competition for the design of an innovative, architecturally striking educational, conference and seed production complex at the National Wildflower Centre, off Junction 5 of the M62 in the Liverpool City Region within the administrative Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley. The competition process is being managed by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Competitions Office on behalf of Landlife and supported by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

Introduction

This project provides a unique opportunity to create an outstanding gateway site to the Liverpool City Region and a Science and Maths learning facility to inspire and encourage people to visit the Centre to learn about the relationships between nature, mathematics and physics. It will significantly enhance the visitor experience of the National Wildflower Centre and provide a centre of excellence, and operational hub for creative conservation, learning and innovation.

Site and Context

The National Wildflower Centre is located within the walled garden of Court Hey Park, an attractive Victorian park of 14 hectares, landscaped with wildflowers. The proposed new complex will complement the 150 metre long Civic Trust and RIBA Award winning building developed as part of the Millennium project that established the National Wildflower Centre in 2000. The National Wildflower Centre currently draws around 30,000 visitors to the park on average with 9,000 school children participating in educational activity. The Centre want to improve the overall quality of the visitor experience, meet the latent demand for additional visitors and conference delegates and facilitate a wider range of events and activities in the future.

Competition Timetable

The competition timetable, which may be subject to variation, is as follows:
Competition Launched: 14 November 2008
Brief available: w/c 17 November 2008
Question deadline for stage one: 5 December 2008
Replies to stage one questions: 12 December 2008
Registration deadline 22 December 2008
Stage one submission deadline: 7 January 2009
Stage one assessment: 14 January 2009
Shortlist announced: 16 January 2009
Deadline for stage 2 submissions: 13 February 2009
Stage 2 interviews: 4 March 2009
Winner announced w/c 9 March 2009

Wildflower Briefing Paper (PDF)