Groups pitch for job on Nobel prize centre

Seven consultancies are pitching to design exhibitions at The Big Idea, a centre to celebrate a thousand years of Nobel prizes, which has just been promised 5.3m by the Millennium Commission.

The Big Idea is planned for the Ardeer peninsula in Ayrshire, Scotland. The centre declines to name groups but reveals that a shortlist is expected in the next two weeks. A final decision is expected by the end of the year.

“The next stage of the pitch will involve coming up with ideas,” says Phil Lavery, a volunteer with the Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston Enterprise Trust, which is organising the project.

BDP is architect, civil and structural engineer for the 3600m2 centre, which will include lecturing, retail and catering facilities.

Meanwhile, London architectural practice Dyke Coomes Associates is compiling a feasibility study to redesign a theatre at Stoke Newington School, London, which has been promised 21 000 by the Arts Council. Graphic designers are expected to be appointed at the end of 1997.

Manchester’s Hodder Associates is designing the Clissold Leisure Centre, also in Stoke Newington, which has been awarded 4.5m from the Sports Council. The practice is also working on Manchester’s Gallery of Contemporary Architecture & Design, which has been awarded 275 100 by the Arts Council.

And the City of Edinburgh’s in-house exhibition designer Jim Shaw and architect Neil Roger are designing an exhibition about Edinburgh’s Calton Hill Millennium Project.