Brick: Milton Hall Dark, Light and Medium Red
Lewes library
In 1948 a sixth form student was asked for his aspirations for the town of Lewes, his response was a 'new library'.
More recently the County Council has been working towards a new home for the library for almost nine years, with considerable efforts by the The Friends of Lewes Library and other local interest groups to fund raise and lobby for support.
Following a competition, McMorran and Gatehouse were appointed as the architects for this prestigious project, the first new build public library for East Sussex County Council in 15 years.
The brief was for a landmark building, on the site of the former gardens to Lewes House, which was the residence of Edward Perry Warren who commissioned Auguste Ro
din's 'The Kiss'.
The building is set into a sloping site, within the Lewes Conservation Area, bounded on each side by high flint walled pathways known as Twittens, which were laid down during the construction of the castle.
As a town rich in history with numerous fine buildings the choice of materials was extremely important. Much consultation was undertaken with East Sussex County Council, Lewes District Council and the Town Council, and a number of public exhibitions held.
McMorran and Gatehouse's approach is not to mimic the past but to work with it, using traditional materials and techniques in a contemporary way, with an awareness of cost and efficiency.
The building is essentially a steel frame, with seven steeply pitched gable roofs in clay tiles with a zinc apron drawing them all together around the perimeter. The walls are constructed as cavity walls with blockwork inner leaf and flint and brick outer leaf using an exaggerated Flemish Bond. Using knapped flints in the traditional sense would not only have been cost prohibitive but also time consuming. Instead we sourced a 'flint concrete block' from St Catherines Flint Products, Dorchester (Tel: 01300 341376).
Normally these blocks are built into panels and pointed up afterwards to
replicate traditional flint work. Several sample panels were built and working closely with the manufacturers and contractor we developed a full faced flint block in white concrete, with exposed aggregate and a mix of knapped and whole flints. This was combined with Hanson's Milton Halls clay bricks in light, medium and dark red in 50:30:20 proportions randomly mixed to achieve a richly textured pallet of materials. The flint blocks form the stretchers to the 'Flemish Bond' and 3 stack bonded bricks form the headers.
This pattern establishes the module for the building and dictates the setting out of windows, door openings, movement joints and is gauged to the building heights, thus regulating the design of each façade.
Work commenced on June 2004 with the appointment of a local contractor J. Cheesmur Sons (Lewes) Ltd following a traditional tender.
Initially the masonry design presented a technical challenge. How do you build a brick flint wall when flint blocks do not give a straight smooth arris for string lining or plumbing purposes?
The solution was arrived at by Cheesmur's site agent himself an experienced bricklayer, who proposed the following strategy:
The inner blockwork was raised by one course above the outer leaf, wall ties and insulation installed, the bonded brick headers were raised following the brick/block module, therefore allowing the string lines to be carried around the building. Then the flint blocks were lowered into place and the next course raised with plumbing of the brickwork diagonally across the 'Flemish Bond' pattern.
This proved to be an extremely quick construction method, so much so that the contractor was able to catch up earlier delays to the programme.
The construction as a whole has been an enjoyable process for everyone involved. The local contractors and sub contractors have taken pride in their work which has added value to the project.
Where possible this was our design intention and was fully endorsed by our client East Sussex County Council. We believe that sustainable design is as much about helping to sustain local communities as the selection of the materials.
This is a building about the people of Lewes and East Sussex without whom this library would not have been realised.
Photos and project description provided courtesy of McMorran and Gatehouse Architects Ltd