broughshane urban design strategy

7/27/2019 Broughshane Urban Design Strategy

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Rural Landscape and Design

Alan Bannon 40090963

Broughshane, Co. Antrim


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Conte

nts

Contents........................................ P. 1

Location........................................ P. 2

Historical Context.......................... P.3

Demographics/ Legability.............. P.4

Townscape Analysis...................... P. 5-6

Possible Sites............................... P. 7

Final Site....................................... P. 8

Example of Building...................... P.9

Site Proposal................................. P. 10-12

Building Materials.......................... P. 13

Conclusion.................................... P. 141


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Location

The village is located roughly 3 miles North-East of Ballymena and roughly

30 miles North of Belfast and is home to 2394 people and is located on the

river Braid. Broughshane is known throughout the UK and Ireland as being

one of the most picturesque villages in the UK, in fact it has won numerous

awards including Calor 'Village of the year' , Ulster in Bloom, Britain in Bloom

and Ireland's best kept small town amongst other awards.

As you can see from the map on the right the site is located on the main

street of the village but a short walk from the majority of the commercial ac-

tivity and this must be considered when suggesting a use for the site. Fig.

3 shows the importance of the village to the surrounding hinterland, it is thecentre of activity in a rural setting again this must be taken into consideration

when developing the site.

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Histo

ricalCont

ext

The village of Broughshane, meaning Shanes fort takes its name from the nearby birthplace of Shane O Neill,

Broughshane has produced several famous people including Sir George White VC, the most decorated soldier in the British Army and the hero of the

Siege of Ladysmith. There is a memorial dedicated to him in the Presbyterian Church graveyard.

The 1859 Ulster Revival had a profound effect upon the local community including the outbreak of spiritual revival in the district. Large crowds gathered

outside the local Presbyterian Church were many of the 4,000 crowd converted to the faith of Jesus Christ, the outcome of this was the construction of a

new Presbyterian Church in the village which still stands today.

Broughshane was lucky to escape most of the violence associated with The Troubles which plagued the province of Ulster for nearly 30 years from theoutbreak in 1969 until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which brought and end to the violence.There are no reported killings in the village and very

little secterian attacks. There is an active historical society in the village which shows that its people take an interest in Broughshanes history.

1829 1903

The above maps taken from OS Northern Ireland show the development of the village during the 19th Century from a few building to a village with a linear

characteristic. The village is historically known as the gateway to the glens of Antrim and the gateway to Slemish Mountain which is located to the North of

Broughshane.3


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De

mographics

/L

egability

The Demographics of Broughshane are interesting; the village had a

population of 2364 people according to the 2001 census. The characteristics

of the people are listed below;

19.3%wereundertheageof16.

23.6%wereaged60andover.

Theaverageagewas39.6years(NIaverageage35.8years).

48.6%ofthepopulationweremalewhile51.4%werefemale.

4.9%werefromaCatholicbackground. 93.5%werefromaProtestantandotherChristianbackground.

5.3%werebornoutsideofIreland.

0.4%werefromanethnicgroupoutsideofNorthernIreland

The demographics of the village show that its population are predominantly white,

Protestant and are slightly older than the Northern Ireland average age. Over

5%ofthevillagespopulationwerebornoutsideofIrelandwhichshowstherehas

been migration to the village.

The above map shows the legability of Broughshane, it is clear

that there are problems with access to the river Braid and

especially the duck pond which is a major tourist attraction,

tourist many whom have young children have to walk through

ahousingestateandthenthroughaeldonaconcretepath

togettothepond,whichispronetooodingintimesofhigh

precipitation. This must be addressed if Broughshane is to

maximise its potential.

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Towns

capeAna

lysis

As you can see from the above chart most of the buildings in Broughshane are

residential, there is a lot of commercial activity in the village centre along Main

Street, there are community buildings to the east and west of the village centre

providing local people amenities that are used on a near daily basis, there

are also educational and religious buildings. There are 3 vacant sites in the

village which must be addressed, one of these sites will be the location for our

proposed development.

Strengths Greatsenseofcommunity Horticultureismaintainedtoahighstandard. RefurbishmentofoldmilltoprovidenewofficespaceandBroughshanehouse Publicrealmisgood,withalotofgreenareaslocatedinthevillage

Localisedeconomy ActivestreetfrontagesWeakness Onlyonepedestriancrossinginthemainstreet VerylimitedbusservicestoBallymena NotenoughroomonMainStreettoparkcars. Havetowalkthrougharesidentialareatogettopond VacantsiteswithinthevillageOpportunities Opportunitytoattracttourists Todevelopthevacantsitesinthevillage Toexpandthelocaleconomy Opportunitytoincreaseconnectionsinthevillage

Threats ExpansionfromBallymenaintothevillage ThreatoffloodingfromtheriverBraid Chanceofalienationofsmallerreligiousgroups Threatfromanti-socialbehaviourascanbeseeninthephotobelow

SWOT Analysis

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TownscapeAn

alysis

When developing our site we want it to blend in with its surroundings,this

is why we have a building heights map, which can be seen above. Most

of the village is residential and therefore the village is mostly made up

of two storey and single storey buildings, however in the centre of the

village there are a few buildings that are three stories high, this must be

taken into equation when we are designing our site.

Above is a legability map of Broughshane that shows the barriers in light blue,

the nodes in dark blue and landmarks in orange. It is important to carry out

legability analysis of the area as you want to pick a site that is preferably close

to a node, or landmark so there will be footfall and not too close to a barrier as

this causes restraints to the development.

Legability Map Building Heights Map

To the left is a cross section of

the centre of the village including

the Orange Hall, the War memo-

rial,the Main Street, the museum

and the pine court housing estate.

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P

ossibleS

ites Above is a map of the vacant sites in the village, there is a tough choice to be made

between the three sites as they alllocated in prominent locations, they also are large

siteswhichmakestheprocessmoredifcult.1istheoldpolicestationthatwillbecome

vacant in September 2013 and is located on the Western entrance to the village, it is

roughly 1600 meters squared, 2 is two vacant homes on main street with a large area attherearofthepropertiesandisroughly1750meterssquared,andnally3istheformer

Patton group building and is roughly 1800 meters squared, it is located at the Eastern

entrance to the town.

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1

2

13

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FinalSite

I have chosen this site for numerous reasons in-

cluding; I feel it is the best location located just out-

side the centre of the village on a large site, roughly

0.4 acres which is 1600 meters squared, it also has

thebenetofbeingthelocationofaformerpolice

station and a large two storey building of nearly

3,000 square feet exists. From previous research I

discovered that there is only one bed and breakfast

in the village and for a village that attracts so manytourists and is very well known throughout Ireland

and Britian I felt that this was inadequate so with

this site I decided to develop a small hotel.

1 2 3

Below are sectional views of the site that I have cho-

sen, on the map to the left you can see the direction

that these views are from,as you can see the site is

surrounded by a large wall and metal fence for secu-

rity reasons as it is police station.

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Exam

pleofbuil

ding

I had looked for examples of similar buildings that had been converted

to small hotels and I found The Belfray Country Inn in County Derry, it is

similar as it was an old building restored into a small hotel and has a large

function room. My idea will be on a smaller scale but it is good to have a

an example to refer too. The Belfray Country Inn is a very succesfull hotel

and resturant and I would base my hotel on this.

As you can see from the picture on the left, various exten-

sions have been added to the original building, much the

same way I propose, one thing I have an advantage with is

the building is located back from the road which will allow

carstoparkonsitewhichhastheaddedbenetofsecurity.

Below you can see the function room/ dining room from the

Belfray Country Inn, although it is bigger than what I propose

it will be similar. In the background you can see there a lot of

windows letting in natural light, this will be important especially

for people eating breakfast as the sun will be rising and will

shine in the windows of the dining room.

To the left is a picture

of the bar at the Belfray

Country Inn, I would

propose something very

similar at the hotel in

Broughshane. It could

also serve as a small

nightclub that would

bring more much needed

money into the village.

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Site

Proposal

To the left is an elevation, plan and end view of the pro-

posed development you can see that I have added anextension to the existing building to make it more econom-

ically viable. I propose to build a small hotel with roughly

6 or 7 rooms, the building will also house a function room/

diningroomthatcanbeusedforthebenetofthecom-

munity. I plan to make the building as sustainable as pos-

sible by using building materials that help reduce the car-

bon footprint of the hotel. As the site is quite large there

will be an oppurtunity to landscape the garden area.

To the right is a sketch of the site before it has

been developed, as it was a former police sta-

tion the wall is high in the front and there is a

large metal fence roughly 15 feet high around

the perimeter of the site. The location of the site

attheentrancetothevillageandthisfortied

look does not match the rest of the village and

is not very welcoming.

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SitePropos

al

Totheleftisasketchofthenisheddevelop -

ment, you can see that I lowered the wall to a

small wooden fence and tore down the metal

fence which will give a welcoming look to the

building, as I plan to develop it into a small

hotel is essential that the building is welcom-

ing. I also added two windows to the front of

the building upstairs to make more rooms, the

building blends in with its surroundings which

is vital for a small village like broughshane

that thrives on tourism and its looks.

To the right is a sketch of the front of the building

as you can see the large wall and metal fence

has been taken down and two windows have

been added, this makes the building and town

more attractive and welcoming. The surrounding

area of the building will be hard landscaped with

paving bricks again this is to add attractiveness

to the hotel.

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Site

Proposal

As you can see from the sketch on the left

I have added a function room/ dining room

to the building, I have also added large

glass windows to let as much light as pos-

sible into the hotel the function room/ dining

room is located at the south of the building

which as you can see from the sun path

map below attracts most of the sun. I feel

this is a good feature as natural light is very

calming and the brightness will help cutdown on false light and therefore making

the building more sustainable. There is also

an oppurtunity for the installation of solar

panels on the rear of the building on the

roof, here they will attract the most sun-

light and wont be visible from the road and

therefore wont take away from the attrac-

tiveness of the building.

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There will also be parking available atthe front and the rear of the building

so cars wont block the road outside

this is important as there is little park-

ing in this area of the village. There

will also be a small green area at the

rear of the development here people

staying at the hotel or people using

the function room can come outside

and relax, there will be benchs and it

will also be an area where a marquee

can be erected during the summer

months and events such as a com-munity barbecue could be held here.


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BuildingMate

rials

Building materials are nearly as important as the design of the building, on

this page you can see the examples of materials I would use in the building of

the hotel. Small features such as solar panels and triple glazed windows can

lower the carbon footprint of the building and therefore make the development

more sustainable it also helps the owner save money in the long term on

electricity and heating costs. I have also added information about the outside

of the building such as the landscaping both hard and soft and what type of

fences I would put around the perimeter.

To the left is an exam-

ple of solar panels on a

roof of a house, I would

propose something very

similar to be added on

the hotel. I would placethe solar panels at the

rear of the building so

they would not be visible

from the road.

Below is an example of brick paving this would be an

attractive addition to the outside of the building

Below is a picture of a low wooden fence that could

be used as the perimeter around the hotel, it is high

enough to stop young kids running away but low

enough to let people see over and take away from the

fortiedfeelthatexistsatthemoment.

To the right is an example

of a simple landscaped

garden which is low main-

tenance but yet very at-

tractive, something very

similar to this garden

would be very nice in my

site, it could be used for

a marquee in the summermonths.

To the left is a diagram describing

how triple glazed windows work.

Triple glazing helps retain heat,

keep out cold and also helps

with noise pollution. Triple glazed

windows make the building sus-

tainable by cutting down on the

heating bill and by using natural

resources for heat, this combined

with the solar panels should

greatly reduce the carbon foot-

print of the development.

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Con

clusion

Throughout this booklet I have looked at the problems and oppurtu-

nities such as the legability, building heights and vacant sites in the

village,Ihaveidentiedthreevacantsitesandhavechoseoneto

develop. The site is that of the former PSNI station located on the

western edge of the village, it is a large site and I designed a small

hotel to be located there. I researched accomadtion facilities in the

village and found that there is only one bed and breakfast in Brough-

shane so there was an oppurtunity to develop an accomadtion facil-

ity. I decided to add an extension to the building so more bedroomsand a function room/ dining room could be built, I planned for large

windows to be located at the rear to allow natural light into the hotel.

I planned to make the building as sustainable as possible by using

solar panels and triple glazing windows to reduce the carbon foot-

print. Overall I feel that the new development will become a hub for

the local community and provide Broughshane with much needed

money for its economy.

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