The new park and ride at Petersfinger commissioned by Wiltshire County Council (WCC) provided an additional 550 parking spaces for Salisbury with easy bus access to the city centre. The site has a central amenity control building which accommodates an internal public waiting area, ticketing and information point for the public and a control centre for the park and ride facility. The project is now successfully in operation.
From the outset, WCC were clear in their objective to make this an exemplar project, not only to satisfy the functional requirements of the brief but to produce a design that would respond to the semi- rural nature of the location, and embed sustainable design principles.
From the initial concept stage, the setting of the building was carefully considered so that internal public spaces were orientated to the south maximising the quality of naturally lit spaces. This was balanced by providing deep eaves to the perimeter of the building controlling solar gains and glare. Materials were selected to enable the building to absorb and retain energy through the day, minimising heating input requirements and improving the thermal efficiency of the building and were carefully considered, using where possible renewable and locally sourced materials. The roof in particular was a key aspect of this design approach using timber framing construction with a green roof covering. The planted green roof not only creates a habitat for native flora and fauna reinforcing visual links to the surrounding landscape, but also contributes to the thermal mass of the building, harvests and reuses rainwater, and is constructed from renewable materials.
