Designing for Heritage ― Contemporary Visitor Centres

With tourists expecting higher levels of service, information and retail opportunities, visitor centres have become a vital component in providing access to heritage sites, historic buildings, landscapes of natural beauty and monuments. As a consequence, numerous architecturally renowned centres have been designed and built in recent years. It is perhaps no surprise that so many of these centres have been featured in architectural awards, as they not only offer a ‘jewel’ of a project to architects, being small in scale but high in profile, but the buildings must also respond sympathetically to a rich physical and cultural context. This book examines the global phenomenon of this relatively new, but increasingly popular, building type. The first section offers a series of essays which explore the origins and key characteristics of the visitor centre, its relationship between place and landscape, its social role, and its focus on the visitor’s needs. The book’s second section documents and critically analyzes 20 award-winning visitor centres across the United Kingdom which have been built over the past two decades, including the centres at The Giant’s Causeway, Stonehenge, Brockholes, Rosslyn Chapel, Culloden and the Wildfowl Centre in Welney. Each building study is beautifully illustrated with photographs and architectural drawings, and includes the essential facts about the building, an experiential description and a full spatial analysis.

Ruth Dalton is a Professor of Architecture at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK. As a licensed architect, she has worked for Foster and Partners (London) and Sheppard Robson Corgan Architects (London) and has worked on key projects, including the Carre d’Art de Nimes, in France, the Palacio de Congresos in Valencia, Spain, and the King's Cross International Terminal (unbuilt).