Boathouse &
Education Space
Blackburn

At Fishmoor Reservoir in Blackburn, Nicholson Nairn Architects and ADS Design have been working in collaboration to create a building which aims to improve accessibility to water activities for the local community, particularly young people from less advantaged backgrounds.

 

At the heart of the building design is the provision of a safe, welcoming environment for local children. 

 

The building has two forms - a cold store for the boats, nestled against the warm solidity of a stone clad education space.  The building responds directly to its immediate context, with floor levels set to allow elevated views across the reservoir over the existing bund, set using drone footage referenced to datum for the optimal view.  This creates an elevated floor level, 3m above existing, which provided the opportunity to create a playful stepped/ramped approach to the main entrance. 

 

A grass embankment is proposed to the perimeter of the building, softening the transition between the levels and further grounding the building to its context, by replicating the existing grassed reservoir bund