The Depot Lewes has been shortlisted in the non-residential category of the South Downs National Park Design Awards. The awards were launched earlier this year to celebrate innovative and inspirational projects that have made a standout contribution to the landscape, heritage, built environment and local communities of the National Park. It has also been included in the People’s Choice Award, which will be decided by public vote.
The Depot is a new three-screen community cinema, designed by Burrell Foley Fischer, on the site of the modest but much loved existing warehouse of the old Harvey’s brewery depot in Lewes. The three screens have been discreetly inserted within the saved brick shell, with the major design move being to attach a new glazed extension with the depot structure fully visible as the historic backdrop to the new box office, café bar, restaurant and film education and training facilities. Reflecting the historic site layout of orchards and meadows, the former tarmacked service yard is landscaped to provide a new public realm.
The ‘People’s Choice’ award gives communities in and around the National Park the opportunity to vote for a design project that honours and enhances the landscape of the South Downs National Park whilst also meeting the highest standards in sustainability. Details on how to vote for the Depot can be found here:
https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/planning/south-downs-national-park-design-award/peoples-choice-2019/