Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Building, Teesside Leisure Facility, Architecture Project Design Images

Sub Zero: Middlesbrough Snow Centre

9 Apr 2020

Middlesbrough Snow Centre – Teesside Leisure Facility

Location: Middleborough, northeast England

Design: FaulknerBrowns Architects

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Teesside building

FaulknerBrowns plans for indoor snow centre in Middlesbrough approved

Plans drawn up by FaulknerBrowns Architects for a major new £30m indoor snow centre and leisure destination in Middlesbrough, have received full planning consent. The scheme for developer Cool Runnings NE, which is to be named Sub Zero, could now become the fifth snow slope completed by the practice, and the seventh completed in the UK.

The practice is concurrently developing plans for North Star Village, an indoor snow centre and leisure destination in Swindon for SevenCapital which received planning consent in November 2018.

Proposals for the Sub Zero leisure destination include an indoor snow centre, with a 165m main slope and a shorter beginners’ slope; circa 5,000 square metres of retail and dining; a bowling alley; a trampolining and climbing centre; and a ‘sky bar’ providing panoramic views over the dock, town centre and iconic Transporter Bridge.

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Teesside building

The Sub Zero development will bring back into use brownfield land to the north of Middlesbrough Dock in Middlehaven, neighboured by Middlesbrough College and the Temenos sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor and structural designer Cecil Balmond, which has occupied the site since 2010.

The Middlehaven Dock was opened in 1842 to service the town’s expanding coal, iron and steel industries. Gradual decline of these industries in the second half of the 20th century lead to the piecemeal downsizing of the rail and port infrastructure until closure of the dock to shipping in 1980.

The site has since been cleared, with the exception of the Grade ll Listed Dock Clock Tower, constructed in its present form in 1870 and containing water tanks that once provided hydraulic power to operate the dock gates and machinery.

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Teesside building

The positioning and orientation of the building has been carefully considered to avoid overshadowing of the site by the main snow slope and to allow the listed clock tower to maintain a visual relationship with the dock. Integrated into the public realm around the building, the proposals afford the clock tower a new prominence within the site, contributing to the entrance sequence and sense of arrival.

The relationship between the two snow slopes has been configured so that the secondary building uses provide active frontages to the dockside, with the potential for external seating and activity spaces. A balcony within the ‘sky bar’ below the main slope, will allow the clock tower and dock to be viewed from a new elevated position.

The exterior of the building has been designed to draw on the shipping and industrial heritage of the area whilst creating a modern, contemporary appearance. The dynamic forms of the main snow slope and beginners’ slope are expressed in light coloured profiled metal sheeting laid horizontally.

In contrast, the remainder of the façade to first floor level is infilled with vertically profiled weathered steel panels. With each panel weathering with a subtly distinct patina, the rectangular grid provides a varied texture to the elevation, creating interest and reducing the visual mass of the building.

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Teesside building

At the ground floor, the retail units have been set back to create a concrete colonnade and covered walkway giving a sense of enclosure and some protection from the weather, whilst also helping to give an appropriate scale to the building at ground level where people experience the building most directly.

Russ Davenport, Partner at FaulknerBrowns Architects, said: “It has been a pleasure to produce plans for this fascinating site with its rich history and enormous destination potential. The unusual shape of the site, its unique heritage feature and dockside location, have provided the opportunity to create a characterful waterfront leisure destination with a strong regional draw. We look forward to taking these plans forward in the coming months with a view to contributing to the long-term regeneration of this area of Middlesbrough.”

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Teesside building

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre – Building Information

Project name: Sub Zero | Middlesbrough Snow Centre
Location: Middlesbrough, UK
Value: £30 million
Architects: FaulknerBrowns Architects
Client: Cool Runnings NE
Planning consultant: Prism Planning
Structural engineer: Patrick Parsons
M&E consultant: Desco
Quantity surveyor: Driver Group

FaulknerBrowns Architects

Sub Zero Middlesbrough Snow Centre Building images / information from FaulknerBrowns Architects

Location: Middlesbrough, Teesside, Middleborough, north east England, UK

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