Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum, Durham

2024 RIBA North East Award
2024 RIBA North East Building of the Year sponsored by EH Smith
2024 RIBA North East Conservation Award

Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum, Durham
Níall McLaughlin Architects & Purcell for The Auckland Project
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 4189m2

Auckland Castle is a grade I listed medieval episcopal palace that has been the seat of the Bishop of Durham for nearly a millennium. Sitting to the north of Bishop Auckland, it is nestled between the rivers Wear and Gaunless. Since acquiring the site in 2012, the Auckland Project has been transforming it into a centre for arts, culture and heritage for locals and visitors. As part of the transformation, a collection of elements with differing forms and uses has been delivered. The Auckland Tower and Faith Museum, both by Níall McLaughlin Architects, are welcome new additions. The Tower acts as a beacon for the town and gateway to the Castle grounds, while the Faith Museum with its compelling barn-like form provides space for exhibition displays on faith in Britain. Painstaking conservation works to Auckland Castle by Purcell help safeguard its historic fabric for future generations.

First glimpsed as you cross the Newton Cap Viaduct to the town, the Tower’s pointed timber structure peeks above the surrounding townscape. Its prominent setting to the north-east of Bishop Auckland Market Place makes this a focal point for the town, ideal as a welcome building for the Castle. Inspired by historic siege towers, its now weathered larch timber frame is impressive and enticing. The events hall, within the angular roof form of the Tower’s base, offers a light, welcoming space for the local community. Visitors are encouraged to advance up the Tower via the enfolding external stair with its protruding metal platforms providing an oversized playground for all ages.

The Castle itself has undergone substantial enhancements including the conservation of state apartments and domestic rooms and the provision of new learning, catering and retail spaces. The aim was to improve accessibility and energy efficiency while preserving the building fabric. Purcell deserves praise for its seemingly effortless incorporation of a fully accessible visitor route – not to be underestimated in a listed building with a warren of internal levels at play. Building services including heating and ventilation have been entirely renewed and existing fabric upgraded sensitively. 

The vibrant colour scheme, guided by a detailed architectural paint analysis, draws you further through the sequence of spaces before progressing into the vaulted corridors. These have been reworked to enable use as further exhibition space connecting visitors to Níall McLaughlin’s Faith Museum. On arrival the large picture window, initially seen on the approach to the building, reorientates, offering refreshing views over the grounds to the river below.

Local Cop Crag sandstone, detailed with care and obvious pride, glows in the afternoon sun, weathering subtly. The prominent roof finials enhance the bold and considered medieval barn form, where the solidity of the stone contrasts with the internal thicket-like roof structure, which floats ethereally above the main exhibition space.

The ambition of the brief and its thorough execution mark Auckland Castle as a valuable extension to the town, offering visitors and locals moments of amusement, reflection, and education while supporting the longevity of the built heritage.

See the rest of the RIBA North East winners here. And all the RIBA Regional Awards here.

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RIBA Regional Awards 2024 sponsored by EH Smith and Autodesk