The Golden Butterfly Heritage Centre
A Heritage Centre concerned with the oral histories of Crewe, governing ‘The Golden Butterfly’ auditorium for spoken word performances from the workers who built Crewe & the National railway network, with Crewe as the Gateway to the North. My personal architectural position explores local craftsmanship, heritage and place-making to inform the design. I aspire to design boldly, contributing proposals that serve the community, cultivating local pride and sparking visitors’ intrigue, whilst resonating with the cultural and social identities of their surroundings.
The Golden Butterfly image emerges from both materiality and structure. Copper cladding scored with heritage motif apertures filters light into the auditorium, diffusing glare whilst harnessing natural daylight and solar gains, reducing operational energy emissions. The cladding weathers as it ages, becoming embellished with a natural protective patina, not only extending its longevity, but also physically representing its programme: the façade forms a tangible archive – a visual scrapbook for Crewe. The growing veil of jade green documents an evolving image for the town, marking the passing of time as memories are passed from generation to generation. The auditorium’s inverted pitch roof supported by glulam ‘butterfly’ trusses further informs the project’s identity and situation as a landmark within the town. Its place-making framework is rooted in the sharing, triggering, and preserving of local working communities’ memories which inspires connection across generations.
This heritage centre gives space to the underrepresented and marginalised ‘Navvy’ communities that toiled to build the railways in the Victorian era – unsung engineering masters of industrial Britain. In their legacy, recording studios and the auditorium for oral histories aim to re-represent these populations, identifying their skills not only in labour, but also literacy, reconnecting the town to the Lost Narratives of its past.
