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Bridport Household Recycling Centre, Bridport

A ruggedly handsome building that elevates the type

Credit: Peter Cook

Mitchell Eley Gould for Dorset Waste Partnership, Dorset County Council

Contract value: Undisclosed

GIA: 1992m2

Infrastructure is rarely approached as architecture, and refuse facilities rarely benefit from the design attention their scale and visual presence warrants.  So the initial triumph is not what the Bridport Recycling Centre is, but rather what it isn’t. This is not just a shed in a field but a bespoke, considered, ruggedly handsome building that elevates the type.

  • Credit: Peter Cook
  • Credit: Peter Cook
  • Credit: Peter Cook
  • Credit: Peter Cook
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The refuse centre is possibly visited more often by more people than other public buildings in the town. A legible and generous entry sequence welcomes visitors through a great portal extruded from the canopies that cover the public recycling bays beyond. A timber clad staff pavilion with radiused corners stands sentry to reinforce the entry diagram. These small but significant additions to the composition are the antithesis of ‘value engineering’.  The building is robust, confident and cohesive, founded on functional planning rigour that follows through to the detail of a very hardworking facility. 

See other winners of the RIBA Regional Awards 2016 – South West


 

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