Article by Kevin Cooper in the September issue of RIAS Review. Republished with permission.
The Isle of Arran is located in the Firth of Clyde between Ayrshire and the Mull of Kintyre, enjoying magnificent landscapes, diverse wildlife and a rich cultural heritage. Its scenic coastline encloses such features as the towering peaks of the Arran Mountain Range to the north, and gentler hills and lush farmland to the south, which often leads to the island being described as “Scotland in Miniature”. Arran is not just a beautiful place to live but also a delightful holiday destination with a wide variety of outdoor activities and other diverse attractions for Arran’s thousands of visitors per year to enjoy. The island has a special atmosphere, lending it a wonderfully specific and beguiling sense of place. It is peaceful, remote and contained, yet only 50 minutes by ferry from Ardrossan on the mainland, to Brodick on the island’s eastern coast.
The entrance to Brodick Ferry Terminal, Isle of Arran, Scotland, seen from the Brodick shore.
This ferry route is one of the two busiest in Scotland with several sailings per day. The existing 1970s era facilities were tired and cramped and had needed upgrading for some time. In late 2012, it became clear that a new pier, bus stances, an increased marshalling area and a modern terminal building would all be required as part of a £24.0 million major infrastructure investment. The end user client for the project was the port owner and operator, Caledonian Marine Assets Ltd (CMAL), as opposed to the ferry operator, CalMac (CMAC). The project was understandably an engineering led development, at the time the largest of its type undertaken by CMAL, who, through their infrastructure framework, selected an engineering partner, CH2M Hill to lead the project on their behalf. NORR was, in turn, appointed as a sub-consultant to CH2M Hill, not through any of the byzantine complexities so prevalent in today’s procurement landscape, but rather through the refreshing, somewhat old fashioned route of a simple phone call with an invitation for us to join the team based on successfully working together on other projects. We had never previously designed a ferry terminal but were delighted to be given the opportunity. As an Ayrshire native who had grown up with the familiar silhouette of Arran, I was personally particularly delighted to be involved.
Although an engineering led project, the site’s prominent position on the waterfront in Brodick increased the importance of the terminal and its architecture as the focal point of this new investment. The client and the engineering team recognised this, understanding that the building would form a new gateway to Arran, and was therefore critical to both the success of the wider project, and to the visitor’s first impression of the island. Significant community engagement was consequently undertaken both before and during the project’s design, and subsequently during its construction. The islanders care deeply about their island and this process consequently resulted in public presentations and detailed discussions to explore a variety of options as the design developed. The completed building ultimately bore a striking resemblance to the initial sketches of the final option, a situation which fellow architects will know is not always the case. In approaching the design of such an important public project, we took our cue from other major buildings on Arran, such as Brodick and Lochranza Castles, the adjacent Douglas Hotel, or JJ Burnett’s churches in Corrie and Shiskine, all of which are constructed of red sandstone. Consequently, we clad the terminal in a red sandstone rainscreen. Other design factors which we considered included:
- The creation of a strong sense of arrival and departure.
- The careful manipulation of scale.
- The formation of a tangible sense of place through the provision of a contextual design, which combines a castle-like solidity with convivial transparency, blending the influences of the old with the presence, and processes, of the new.
- The visual masking of the existing industrial buildings to the south of the site.
- The creation of a genuinely sustainable, accessible and inclusive environment for all.
- Last, but certainly not least, the smooth and efficient flow of the client’s operational requirements, for both vehicles and pedestrians.
Detail of windows within rainscreen sandstone cladding (left). Conceptual sketches by Kevin Cooper, 2013 (right).
In architectural terms, the building is essentially a linear reflection of a linear process, enhanced by the use of levels and benefitting from its prominent setting parallel to the sea. From an arriving ferry, we sought to break down the project’s scale through the use of pitched roof-lights, a variety of window sizes, the occasional use of deep reveals and the gently curving lines of the building’s form. That, combined with the use of traditional hues and colours such as white walls, grey metal roof elements, and the red sandstone envelope, all assist in anchoring what is a very large contemporary building into its more vernacular, quasi-industrial context. Functional efficiency was also crucial to this new piece of infrastructure, both inside and out. For example, extensive engineering analysis was carried out to determine the optimum position and angle of the new pier in relation to the prevalent marine conditions. In addition, some land was reclaimed to provide an expanded marshalling space, all in a manner which allowed the retention and continued use of the existing pier whilst also providing a new, centrally located site for the terminal building around which vehicles would arrive and depart. All of this resulted in complex phasing requirements and careful collaboration between the architects and our engineering colleagues.
Main entrance to west on the left, and arrivals colonnade to the south on the right.
The overall layout of the terminal is straightforward. The ground floor incorporates the main entry and reception foyer (from the west) and drop-off area (to the south) together with a variety of supporting staff and operational facilities. The recessed entrance forms an end point to the sweep of Brodick Bay as well as a covered zone for the annual commemoration ceremony for the 379 crewmen of HMS Dasher, lost off the coast of Arran in March 1943, a memorial to whom is incorporated into the entry wall. The first floor, accessed either by the processional stair to the west of the plan, or through the centrally located lift core, is dominated by the main departure lounge where we sought to create a pleasant space in which to dwell, one which would provide powerful visual connections between inside and out. This large space, bathed in diffuse, generally north-facing natural light, is the transparent heart of the building and allows the departing passenger to see the approaching ferry and also to enjoy the panoramic northward views towards Goat Fell. The lounge then leads to a glazed, enclosed and fully accessible walkway which provides direct access to the vessels at first floor level.
The construction process was complex and intricately phased. In April 2016, the contractor dredged material for the new pier to achieve the necessary berthing depth and approximately 24,000 tonnes of material was removed. The majority of this was used in reclamation work but about 6,000 tonnes was provided free gratis to the local community as reclamation infill at Brodick Beach. The building was officially opened to the public on April 12th, 2018.
The main entrance from the west with the elevated passenger walkway beyond.
