Building Awards 2011 shortlist: Carnegie Pavilion

Carnegie Pavilion, Leeds, submitted by Bam

Crouching menacingly in the otherwise innocuous red-brick terrace suburbs of Leeds, Alsop Sparch’s Carnegie Pavilion emerges like a robotic metal chameleon poised to pounce on its unsuspecting domestic neighbours. The new home of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the Tourism, Hospitality and Events faculty of Leeds Metropolitan University at the iconic Headingley cricket ground has been transformed into an abstract, futuristic shell that is intended to project a new and dynamic brand image of both club and city to a global audience. Consequently, green, perforated triangular steel panels clad three sides of the pavilion while on the fourth, facing the pitch, a sheer, inclined glazed curtain wall is etched with a chequered grid of clear and opaque panels. But it is the interior that may well leave the most enduring legacy, an innovatively planned and managed sequence of spaces that perfectly executes the building’s unique dual-function role.

Each day in the lead up to the Building Awards ceremony next month, we will profile one of the finalists in the Project of the Year and Public Building Project of the Year. The winners will be announced as the Building Awards ceremony taking place on April 7. To book a table at the Building Awards visit the web site here.