Education, Public
Buildings and Arts
The Beaney, House of Knowledge and Art
Location: Canterbury
Client: Canterbury City Council
and Kent County Council
Designed by John Miller + Partners with Sidell Gibson, the development plan provides new gallery and library spaces with a new fully accessible entrance off an adjacent side street, Best lane. The dramatic top lit spaces that lead sequentially from this entrance terminate in a new hall. This engages the existing axial approach from the High Street. At this important focal point a glass fronted lift shaft acts as a pin locking the old building with the new, an arrangement that brings coherence to the scheme.
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In addition to the new accommodation, the development plan undertakes major conservation repair work both externally and internally, together with the refurbishment of existing spaces the plan also addresses the inevitable deficiencies that have accrued over time, by improving lighting and environmental controls in the existing spaces to meet the standards now expected internationally.
With the aid of Heritage Lottery Funding the programme of work creates the opportunity for the Beaney to respond to the expectations of the 21st century both through the exhilaration of its spaces and the engaging displays that they are to contain.
