The Pier Arts Centre launches planning application to redevelop former Stromness Post Office
Design visualisations of redeveloped former Stromness Post Office by Reiach and Hall Architects
This historic building in the heart of Stromness ceased operating as the towns Post Office in 2011. The property was purchased by the Pier Arts Centre in 2015 with the aim of addressing the demand identified by locals and visitors for a creative arts hub in Stromness, providing workshop facilities for local people, visitors and learners of all ages and backgrounds. The building will also provide a much needed store for the Centre’s expanding art collection, held in trust for the people of Orkney.
In addition, there will be studio space available for artistic practioners and the Creative Industries and a modest retail and café offer, described by Pier Arts Centre Director Neil Firth as ‘tea and cake’ as well as event spaces which can be used by the many festivals and cultural organisations in Orkney’s community.
The Pier Arts Centre is now at the stage of submitting a planning application to the Orkney Islands Council for the project. Edinburgh based architects Reiach and Hall have been selected to design the facility, a firm very familiar with Stromness and the Pier Arts Centre having helped them complete a major redevelopment of the gallery in 2007, a catalyst in the regeneration of Stromness with projects that followed benchmarked by the success of the stunning addition to the town.
Architectural Expression: Civic Façades
The proposals are characterised by three key façades which speak to three quite distinct conditions, The Street, The Courtyard and The Garden.
Taking cues from the existing Post Office Victoria Street façade, each of these spatial conditions is addressed by a façade that adopts an architectural language which is composed, dignified, quiet. The façades act as mediators between inside and outside, framing views and inviting entry.
The Street
The existing main façade of the Post Office looks onto Stromness’s main street, Victoria Street, the cultural and commercial lifeline of the town. The existing façade is at once neighbourly, adopting in part the language of the traditional architecture of the town, stone and render, slate pitched roof yet it is also distinctive through its use of a modest classical language. A designed arrangement of pilaster and entablature, identifies it as an important public building. The bay composition of the façade anticipates and facilitates the more open commercial fenestration at ground level of the proposals.
The Vennel Entrance
The newbuild entrance is a key pivotal space within the plan organisation. The combined entry space and stairwell give order to the plan while enabling the venue to be operated in many ways i.e. out of hours access and an ability to close down and secure separate parts of the building, whilst creating a memorable arrival space for all building users. The recessed entrance and arrival space acts as a threshold between public and private.Use of the vennel adopts the Stromness tradition of public realm extending beyond the main street into the site - rooted in Udal Law. Visitors will seek out what lies beyond the North gable, having caught a mere glimpse of the North façade, which in hours of dim light and winter darkness, will be bathed in light reflected off the flagstone walls.
The Garden
To the west at level one lies a walled garden, the final space in the journey through the new building. A two storey double-pitched gable façade looks onto this verdant place. At first floor the engagement space opens directly into the garden while at second floor occupants look out onto the garden and beyond. The extension to the rear of the Post Office projects into a very different realm, far removed from the urbanity and commerce of Victoria Street. To the west the ground rises up Brinkie’s Brae, where remarkable stone walled, verdant gardens are discovered, protected from the scouring winds, trees flourishThe colour and materiality of the new building enters into an animated conversation with the
natural world, sky, vegetation, trees and the ochres of the magnificent Orkney stone garden walls.
Orcadia Arcadia where the civic meets the pastoral.