Britten-Pears Archive Building, Aldeburgh, Suffolk 2011 Scheme

Using the same design principles as the 2009 scheme, a new scheme was developed that housed the archive in a massive box within a box, using the same environmental buffer concept as previously. However, for this later scheme, the brief has been revised to include staff accommodation for all of the archivists, resulting in two blocks joined by a common circulation space.

The accommodation building structure comprises a concrete roof and ground floor structure, enveloped by an external envelope of solid brickwork wall. The external structure of the archive block comprises load bearing brick outer walls. All brickwork is to be constructed using a lime mortar, with the advantage excellent environmental performance in a long life building envelope. The other main advantage of lime mortar is that it allows us to build 25 metre long walls with no movement control joints. Lime mortar, being much softer than an equivalent OPC mortar, will allow thermal and moisture induced movements to occur without cracking the bricks. Also, any cracks that do occur will be ‘self healed’ by the exposure of cracked surfaces to the air.

The new scheme has just received planning permission and should be on site in the early autumn.

Architect Stanton Williams Architects