Guide Dogs Breeding Centre, Bishops Tachbrook, Leamington Spa

• Client: GDBA
• Architect: Broadway Malyan, Theale
• Market Sector: Animal Welfare
• Services: Structural Engineering

The new Guide Dogs Breeding Centre at Bishops Tachbrook is a new “state of the art” dog breeding facility tasked with supplying the Guide Dogs Training Centres throughout the UK with up to 1,400 puppies each year to meet the demand for guide dogs.

This new facility is currently under construction on a Greenfield site and replaces the existing facility dating from the 1930s through to the 1980s and which are no longer suitable for the needs of GDBA.

The centre comprises a series of braced steel framed buildings and glulaminated timber roof structures all interconnected to provide a fully integrated facility including the breeding facilities, administrative and public viewing areas.

The scheme was developed with sustainability and carbon footprint at the forefront of the design process. Architectural features included the orientation of the buildings to maximise natural lighting and heating benefits. The structural solution comprises a series of framed, open plan and repetitive structural forms which is sustainable in terms of designing for future flexibility to adapt to the Client’s changing requirements.  The approach maximises off-site prefabrication techniques and allows for eventual deconstruction and further re-use of the frames and materials. The steel frames will already be composed of circa 80% recycled material. Timber from sustainable and renewable sources is also a key component of the structure. The drainage scheme includes for a number of rainwater harvesters for use in the washdown of kennel areas to minimise mains water usage, as well as minimising the volume of surface water discharging from the site.

The new facility is scheduled for completion during 2011.

Download a PDF project sheet

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