Bridport Recycling Centre

Bridport, Dorset

The scheme is for a new recycling and waste transfer facility at Broomhills, Bridport. The site provides essential facilities for the local community and the region. Bridport was previously served on a different site by a household recycling centre on a narrow country lane, which was impractical and discouraging to users. Ease of use was at the forefront of the design of this facility. Beginning with the customer experience where the recycling centre is open to all with level access to the recycling containers. A series of canopies cantilever over users vehicles, so that recycling on a rainy day becomes more pleasant. The canopy also acts as an acoustic baffle to reduce noise for the users and the wider area. It was essential the buildings sit comfortably in their environment. The building is inevitably large in volume due to the process and the machinery involved, however the design allows the large building to be cut into the naturally sloping site and careful design of the cladding reduces the apparent visible volume. A series of elements that erode the edges of the main also reduce the impact of the volume. Two canopy roofs spread out over the household recycling area. A higher level covers the office and recycling enclosures before turning to provide a welcome canopy. This is a biodiverse green roof which reduces the visual effect of the roof line as well as improving the long term environmental impact of the scheme. The second canopy is at a lower level to provide shelter to the public users over the main recycling areas. This is home to a solar PV and solar thermal array that provides energy for the facility. Objects such as the large tanks for fire suppression sprinklers are also wrapped up in the building cladding so that the site does not become a sprawl of equipment. The scheme uses Siberian larch cladding which is untreated, very hard wearing and from renewable sources. This will naturalise to a soft silver colour in the first year and add a textural softness to this otherwise hard and necessarily mechanical building. The chosen timber compliments the galvanised grating cladding and carefully shuttered smooth concrete. The design was thoroughly followed through on site and as a result the buildings was very carefully built and crafted with real care for detail.