• YSP FF ©MikaelOlsson 2445 2

The Weston

The Weston is a £3.6 million new gallery, shop and café for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Built on a the site of a former quarry within the Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s 18th-century Bretton Estate, The Weston has been designed to carefully sit within this historic landscape and have a minimal impact on its surroundings.

Inspired by land art works by Michael Heizer and Robert Morris, the building creates a clear threshold as both an entrance and a destination extending the visitor experience to the east of the 200 hectare park. Its low profile protects it from the motorway and forms a sheltered, sunken terrace with views across the park towards the Lower Lake and Bretton Hall.

Constructed from layered, pigmented concrete which evokes the strata of the site’s sandstone bedrock, the building emerges from the ground of the former quarry and is defined by a concrete saw-tooth roof. A scalloped fibreglass crown creates a modest, glowing beacon in the landscape at night.

The new gallery, which will showcase a changing programme of temporary exhibitions, features fair-faced concrete walls and is lit from above by a series of roof lights positioned within the concrete structure. Within the walls of the gallery are 10,000 unfired clay bricks which provide a pioneering low-energy environmental control system maintaining the gallery’s internal conditions while also reducing the need for air conditioning.

Constructed from a Douglas Fir timber frame, the café space contrasts with the mass of the concrete of the gallery and has a more homely and inviting feel with a wood burning stove and furniture specifically chosen to give a more domestic atmosphere.

“The new centre is a reflection of our ambition to increase long-term resilience and sustainability by building audiences, further developing our artistic programme, and increasing visitor income. We are very grateful to the many different organisations who have made this project possible, including our visitors who have provided invaluable support.”

– Peter Murray CBE, Executive and Founding Director of YSP

Project: The Weston
Location: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton
Building Type: Gallery, restaurant, shop and visitor centre
Project budget: £3.6 million
Timeline: 2014 – 2019
Status: Completed 2018, public opening 2019
Gross internal floor area: 673 sqm

Team

Client: Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Structural engineer: HRW
M&E engineer: Skelly & Couch
Main contractor: William Birch & Sons
Project manager: Turner & Townsend
Quantity surveyor: BWA
Landscape architect: Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects

Awards

RIBA Stirling Prize 2019, finalist
RIBA Yorkshire Award 2019
RIBA Yorkshire Building of the Year 2019
RIBA Yorkshire Client of the Year 2019 (for Yorkshire Sculpture Park)

Drawings

  • web 01 location plan sml
  • web 02 plan sml
  • web 03 ground plan sml
  • web 04 axo sml
  • web 05 sections sml
  • web 05 sections 2 sml
  • web 06 details sml

Development

  • 02 1
  • 03 1

Project video

Publication

To celebrate the opening of The Weston, we published a short collection of written and visual essays on our journey to realise this special project. The book includes contributions from Founding and Executive Director Peter Murray, Director of Programme Clare Lilley and artist Richard Wentworth. More information and how to purchase a copy here.