• Myrto Gatou - Brighton Centre - Section
  • Myrto Gatou - Brighton Centre - Section model
  • Myrto Gatou - Brighton Centre - Section model
  • Myrto presenting her work

Myrto Gatou receives inaugural Urban Planning Breakthrough Award.

Studio 01’s Myrto Gatou has been awarded the Urban Planning Breakthrough Award. The University of Brighton award, introduced this year, is given to the architecture student proposing the best Urban Plan. It comes with a £500 prize sponsored by Brighton and Hove Buses.

Myrto’s project was in response to the council’s current consideration of how to redevelop the Brighton Centre. There are a number of options under consideration, from refurbishing the existing facilities to building a new conference centre near the marina and redeveloping the Brighton Centre site by extending the Churchill Square shopping complex towards the sea.

Myrto’s proposal looks to replace the conference centre on the same site, while addressing many of the shortcomings of previous urban design in the area by understanding architecture in terms of the relations between buildings not as isolated objects. Her proposal mediates between Churchill Square and the beach front, which she identifies as Brighton’s commercial and cultural hubs. She uses the significant height difference between the seafront and Western Road in order to integrate a new conference centre within this development, with informal cultural-commerical areas in the upper stories. The layout of upper levels is carefully coordinated with the lighting requirements of conference centre programs below.