marks barfield architects - more than meets the eye

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Spiral Café sweeps architectural awards

27 June 2006

Spiral Café, in the heart of The Bullring development in Birmingham’s city centre, has picked up a number of prestigious Awards for its innovative and modern design, including an RIBA 2006 Award last week.

Marks Barfield Architects developed the spiral form of the Café based on the Fibonacci sequence, a series of numbers found in natural patterns of growth throughout the universe, uniting the timeless principles of geometry with modern construction techniques.  The Café is formed by 8 curved structural ribs which enclose the seating and serving space. A frame attached to these ribs forms a rear annex for storage. The ribs pass beneath the level of the floor, into a glazed pit which contains feature lighting. The ribs emerge from this pit to form the bar separating the serving area from the public space of the café.

The Café has been highlighted in a number of Awards schemes as an exemplar of high quality, innovative design, and received an Award in this year’s Civic Trust Awards for its enchanting insertion into the intense public realm of the regenerated Bullring.  The Café was also short-listed for the BCI ‘Small Building Project’ 2005 Award, and the dramatic copper cladding of the Café’s shell-like structure resulted in the project becoming the UK joint winner in the 'Copper in Architecture' Awards 2005.

In addition, the Spiral Café was also long-listed for the RIBA Awards 2005 and selected as the Editor’s choice for the West Midlands RIBA Yearbook.   The project’s creativity has won it a place in the Environmental Design & Architecture/ Design for Leisure and Tourism section of the 2005 D&AD Annual which represents great design creativity for the year.

However, the real indicator of the project’s success is its positive impact on its surrounding area and its huge popularity with locals and visitors.   Winning over 40 Awards within the last ten years, Marks Barfield have continued to illustrate that great design really can transform the quality of the built environment, and are delighted that such a high level of recognition has been given to such a small, yet impacting project.

 ENDS