Craven Arts House, Skipton
The former youth and community centre in Skipton is being renovated and retrofitted to become Craven Arts House, a centre for creative professionals and digital artists. The building will provide studio space, a blue room, and (in later phases) a recording studio, rehearsal space and small performance hall.
The client’s vision is for a building that has affordable energy bills, with no combustion on site and significant carbon reductions. As the building is in a conservation area, the architectural vision has been informed by the constraints of heritage requirements, as well as the available budget. The resulting design aims to maximise improvements to the building within these constraints.
LEDA evaluated multiple ways of ensuring the multi-use facility meets the client’s needs within the constraints of the building. We have worked in a collaborative and flexible way to optimise the extent of the first phase retrofit and renovation, while providing significant carbon savings and a comfortable working space for a reasonable operating cost.
The ventilation strategy evolved from initially having no opening windows, to being able to incorporate openers therefore only needing background mechanical ventilation. Heating temperatures are optimised to enable high efficiency of the heat pumps, while having radiators of suitable for the smaller rooms.
Lighting in the studios uses high colour rendering index LED light sources to help artists to evaluate colours accurately in their work, with power consumption lower than required by regulations.
The later phases will involve the provision of ventilation suitable for the recording studio (noise requirements) and using Passive Stack ventilation for the performance hall, where occupancy will vary from small groups up to a seated audience of 100 people.
Our flexible approach means that the design has adapted to a changing set of constraints, while keeping on target in terms of standards and aspirations.
Client: | Craven District Council / Craven Arts |
Services Provided | Architecture, Sustainability advice, Passive House Design, Mechanical & Electrical design |
Dates: | March – September 2022 |
Contract Value: | Undisclosed (<£1 million) |
Images © Bowman Riley