Wildscreen@Bristol
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
The new fluid link between the historical docklands and the leisure centre
Dennis Gilbert/VIEW and Richard Davies Download Original
Imax cinema, botanical garden, interactive exhibits, education rooms and a restaurant, each housed in a layer defined by its own architectural language
A massive brick drum at the northern apex of the triangular site holds the Imax cinema. From here the building widens out, filling the site, to meet the two storey Grade II listed leadworks factory at the south of the site.
This 19th century building has been converted to contain a ground floor restaurant, shop with offices above.
Between the cinema and the leadworks the accommodation is organised in layers each defined with their own architectural language.
First a glazed atrium separates the cinema from the rest of the building, leaving the drum as a separate entity. The next layer contains a five storey circulation zone, connected to a four storey ‘black box’, which houses interactive multimedia and exhibits, with education rooms above.
Next, the tent roof of the tropical house is suspended from a pair of raking steel masts. Finally a smaller fabric roofed structure fills the space between the tropical house and the leadworks, forming the foyer.
Data
- Begun: Apr 1999
- Completed: Nov 2000
- Floor area: 7,502m2
- Sector: Sports and leisure
- Total cost: £13.9M
- Funding: Millennium Commission
- Tender date: Feb 1998
- Procurement: Construction Management
- Address: @Bristol, Anchor Road, Bristol, BS1 5DB, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Hopkins Architects
- Client: @Bristol
- Project manager: Symonds
- Quantity surveyor: Davis Langdon & Everest
- Construction Consultant: Bovis Construction
- Demolition: CDC Demolition
- General Contractor: Kvaerner
- Services engineer: Fulcrum Consulting/ WW
- Structural engineer: Fulcrum Consulting/ WW
- M&E consultant: N G Bailey & Company
Suppliers
- Concrete Superstructure: Dean Dyball Construction
- Botanical House Waterproofing: Gorvin Roofing
- Structural steelwork: Thomas Steelwork
- Precast concrete: John Graham (Dromore)
- Cladding and glazing: English Architectural Glazing
- Metal roof finishes: Richardson Roofing Company