John Puttick Associates has significantly revised its designs for a new youth centre at Preston Bus Station, a transport hub in northern England that has become an icon of Brutalist architecture (+ slideshow).
The New York firm led by British architect John Puttick won an RIBA-organised competition in 2015 to overhaul the station and add a new youth centre in its grounds.
But it has now revealed new plans for the 2,600-square-metre Youth Zone building, which is to contain cultural and sports facilities, including a rooftop football pitch.
John Puttick Associates has completely changed its plans for the 2,600-square-metre Youth Zone building
The combination of curving and linear walls in the original entry has been replaced with a stepped formation intended to be more in keeping with the 1960s structure, which features tiers of scooped concrete bays. "It has also been important to respond to the proudly utilitarian quality of Preston Bus Station by designing a new neighbour that shares and celebrates this robustness, just a youth centre used for sport and as a place for creativity should do," said John Puttick of his new plans.
"From a technical and cost perspective, the new solution is less complex and more affordable."
The original plans show the youth centre attached to one side of the Brutalist building
While original plans show the youth centre affixed to one side of the heritage-listed station building, the revised scheme will fun...