Immediate Site

The Nottingham Contemporary’s entrance sits on High Pavement in the conservation area of the Lace Market in Nottingham City Centre.

The Nottingham Contemporary is built on a cliff, with entrances to the building on three levels. The main entrance sits on High Pavement ground level, the level on which the galleries are situated on.

The public can enter and exit at two points in the building, High Pavement, east facing and through the café bar, south facing on the mezzanine level, which exits onto the lower yard. Also to the south in the basement level which is situated at the end of cliff road is the vehicle and works entrance. This entrance provides space for lorries to back into the building to unload and load.

The buildings main purpose is an exhibition space for contemporary art, which is displayed in galleries 1-4. In other areas of the building there are workshop spaces, offices and an events space which can provide, music, theatre and cinema.

The space within the galleries provides a good expanse of height and width to accommodate a variety of exhibitions.

There are a number of buildings surrounding the Nottingham Contemporary. The north face of the building has a large expanse of open space as it looks out onto Weekday cross. The buildings facing the Contemporary on weekday cross are mainly cafe’s and restaurants, which are at an angle to this face of the building and look out onto gallery 4’s window. The offices to the west sit across and slightly back from the wide expanse of Middle Hill road, although they overlook the west side of the Contemporary there are no windows on this side of the building.

To the north east of the main entrance, sitting along High Pavement, is a long row of converted historical buildings, which consist of mainly restaurants, cafe’s and bars. These buildings have a view onto the north window and entrance and upper yard window. These buildings have little influence over internal views but link the building to the lace market to which it’s structure is influenced.

To the east lies the imposing converted Unitarian Church, which is now a restaurant/bar. It has high level stained windows, which do not provide views onto the Contemporary and its entrance sits back from the road and from the boundary of the Nottingham Contemporary upper yard. The upper yard area and parts of Garnet Hill steps – with views into the contemporary’s large landing window – can however be viewed from the outside seating areas of the church.

The sunpath allows the Contemporary’s main entrance to have early sun to after midday. Before, during and after midday the best of the sun is focused on the lower yard, where the café seating spills out onto when the weather permits. The north and east facing buildings are not too close to block the sun from the buildings windows and the south facing windows on the café and project area have no buildings overlooking the Contemporary.

Referencing

Ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk. (2009). Nottingham Contemporary | AJ Buildings Library. [online] At: https://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/220 (Accessed on 22.02.19)

Nottinghamcontemporary.org. (2019). Home. [online] At: https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/ (Accessed on 16.03.19)