THE design of performance space that will travel around the Bradford district during the City of Culture year has been revealed.

The design was chosen following a contest that invited architects and creative organisations to submit designs for a performance space that could be moved around the district during 2025 – bringing productions to areas where there is little access to galleries or theatre space.

The winning entry is a collaboration between Carter Gregson Gray, Studio Three Sixty, Structure Workshop and Studio 4215.

One feature of the design that impressed judges was its green impact – the space will leave “mini forests” behind in each place it stops at.

One criteria for the design was that it had to be highly flexible so that it can be adapted and reconfigured between events and respond to different physical locations. Shanaz Gulzar, from Bradford 2025 said: “Carter Gregson Gray and their partners demonstrated detailed consideration to all areas of our brief, and we were particularly impressed by their approach for how we can minimise our sustainable impact during 2025.

“We look forward to working with the project team over the coming months to finalise the design and realising a physical space that we can use to transport all forms of culture to our local communities during our year as UK City of Culture.”

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, co-founder and director of Our Building Design and RIBA Architect Adviser for the competition said: “The design proposes ways to decarbonise, resulting in leaving the site richer in biodiversity and creating micro forests at the locations of the travelling Beacon.

“The proposal also uniquely addresses the practical and complex aspects of designing an iconic travelling performance space for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.”

Jack Carter, of London based Carter Gregson Gray, said: “To us, the Beacon represents an incredible opportunity to create an icon for Bradford 2025, a venue that celebrates Bradford’s heritage and its diverse communities through social gathering, performances and artistic collaborations.

“We want to use the structure of the performance space to capture and record the many stories, experiences and narratives that will emerge, and we look forward to working with the Bradford 2025 team to develop the design over the coming weeks.”

The other shortlisted teams were: • APPARATA Architects with Arinjoy Sen and Structure Workshop • GWP Architecture Ltd + FAUM Architecture with EMPACE and Bradford Moor Pass • IF Design Office Ltd with Street Space Community CIC and Simple Works TLD • New Practice with Common Wealth and Reeves & Bond