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 | | |  | | |  | | | | | | Name:
Chris Wade
Building:
Sheffield Winter Garden, Millennium Galleries & Peace Gardens
Location:
Sheffield
What is your relationship to this building?:
Regular visitor
Why do you love this building?:
This group of buildings and urban spaces has transformed an area at the centre of Sheffield. The Millennium Galleries and Winter Gardens are arguably Sheffield's classiest, highest quality contemporary buildings.
The relaxed atmosphere in both buildings belies the obvious time and effort that has gone into their design. Their architecture is pure but unrepetitive - a welcome contrast to the fussy, regimented architecture of buildings planned for nearby sites.
The Galleries' functions are arranged around an internal street transporting you from one part of the city to another (and in the process up one of Sheffield's many hills) in a sequence that feels completely logical.
The Winter Garden's soaring structure complements this by making the most of the quite unique urban space that you find at the end of the Galleries' light, airy 'street'. Neither building makes any assumptions as to what the visitor should do but both provide more than enough to keep anyone occupied - the Galleries' excellent and extensive exhibitions include touring exhibitions, so there is always something new to see.
The Peace Gardens ultimately will form part of the route that you follow when walking through the Galleries and Winter Garden. As an individual urban space the Peace Gardens are already hugely successful. Careful consideration has gone into all details of the design, from the materials and planting used to the raised grass - which does away with impressions that you're sitting on the floor - and the water jets, which attract playing children during the summer.
As important as the design is the fact that the Gardens are properly maintained. Because of this they are perceived as being clean and welcoming, and as a result are extremely popular. Even when packed with people the atmosphere is relaxed which makes a wonderful contrast to the busy city life going on around.
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Name:
Alex Bennett
Your comments on this building:
An outstanding piece of modern structure, it has great fluidity drawing the viewer through the building with the use of a visual surfaces defining light delicate boundries. The organic formation provides a feel of evolving towards a greater sustainable architecture.
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Name:
Lynne Glazzard
Your comments on this building:
Although I too enjoy the arrangement of the Millennium Galleries, I find the junction between it and the Winter Gardens a bit strange. I would also question the suitability of the galleries for viewing art, as the light levels are very high - higher than I would expect for its purpose.
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