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Yorkshire Geo Centre

Part 2 Project 2007
Emma Fairhurst
Newcastle University | UK
The thesis evolved from a desire to explore the sublime qualities of the dramatic Yorkshire Dales landscape and to heighten the sensations experienced upon encountering the towering man-made quarry face which the proposal nestles beneath.

A local context is rich in unique geological features which greatly influenced the architecture as well as providing the function for the proposal – a geological exhibition centre incorporating a research and education facility to promote the distinctive qualities of the Yorkshire Dales' greatest asset – the breath-taking natural and man-made landscape.

Emma Fairhurst


The site is a disused quarry complete with a redundant but historically important limestone kiln high in the North Yorkshire Dales. The buildings are, appropriately, for exhibition, discovery and research into the local geology. The project is concerned with resolving practical imperatives: how new and sustainable uses can be found to repair a fractured brown field site in a remote rural setting; with place making - how an appropriate setting can be created for an important industrial monument; and with the poetic - buildings that capture and reflect, in every aspect of their form, materials and assembly, the sublime setting.

2007
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