The use of glass balustrades in new buildings is seldom incidental, especially when the building has clearly been designed to have as much natural light and open space as possible. A fine example of this is about to appear in the town of Gateshead.
Due to open in 2025, the Sage International Conference Centre will be located on Gateshead Quays by the banks of the Tyne, where it faces Newcastle across the river. Key features of its design include a pillar-free 6,300 sq m exhibition hall.
The venue has been in the news because it has just been announced that construction firm Lendlease has been appointed to deliver the new centre, with planning permission having been granted by Gateshead Council last month.
What that means is people will soon see the project emerging from the ground and, as it does so, the design style of architects HOK. The firm states of its interior designs: “We use space, colour, materials and light as tools to create healthy, uplifting environments.”
This can be seen from images of the firm’s projects, where glass balustrades, large open-plan areas and glazed areas are a perennial theme.
As a US-based firm, most of its buildings are located across the Atlantic. But Sage International will not be its first UK project, with the glassy interior of the Francis Crick Institute with its multiple balustrades being a sign that the style used in the US and elsewhere is just as applicable in Britain.
For all these reasons, it may be expected that Sage will offer something very similar, providing a large venue in which many people will move back and forth in an area that could easily feel confined and cramped if there were pillars, opaque surfaces and a lack of natural light.
Instead, they will enjoy the opposite, in an environment that may help the centre gain a strong and positive reputation in a short time.
