Truro

The Duchy of Cornwall asked us to develop proposals for the Truro Eastern District Centre in 2009. A highly significant and sensitive site, on the eastern edge of Truro, the designs were brought forward at the request of Cornwall Council who needed to complete their major Park & Ride scheme for Truro. The scheme also comprises a Cornish Food Centre and a new housing in the form of a Crescent and Square.

We worked up the master plan for the proposal over a series of workshops, many held in collaboration with The Prince’s Foundation. The site is prominent and complex.

The application was approved in 2012 and work commenced two years later. The site was completed in 2020 and has become a major new architectural feature on the eastern edge of this historic and ancient city.

Royal Pavilion

Royal Pavilion is the focal building in the Duchy of Cornwall’s Poundbury development, masterplanned by Leon Krier.  At the centre of the scheme, Krier envisioned a bold new urban square lined with taller buildings, and, on the northern side – with extensive views over the Dorset countryside, a city-scaled Pavilion with a tall tower at the focus point of several major streets.

Over several years the Duchy has developed ideas for the proposed building; ultimately deciding that it should be a development of luxuriously appointed, beautifully-designed apartments incorporating the tower into the scheme. Ben Pentreath was appointed to design the building in 2012 and planning was obtained in 2014. The square, lined on other sides with buildings designed by Quinlan and Francis Terry, was opened by H.M. The Queen in 2016 and Royal Pavilion opened in 2018.

The building is designed with echoes of architecture by John Nash, and Sir John Soane, combining Greek Revival forms and details with Roman arcaded architecture. The tower rests on a giant arched base in reconstructed stone. The building is of brick with restrained classical detailing. Every apartment is designed with extensive outdoor terraces and as a result the building has a series of colonnades on each elevation. The interiors have been designed by Ben Pentreath and can be viewed here.

Tornagrain

Tornagrain is a new town being developed by Moray Estates to the east of Inverness. Part of a broad strategy to meet new housing demand in the Highlands, Tornagrain has been planned for almost a decade. The major master plan was developed by Andres Duany and DPZ, and this was granted outline approval in the summer of 2012.

Ben Pentreath & Associates won a limited competition to take forward the scheme to detailed planning in 2011. Since then we have been working closely with the landowner and with DPZ to bring forward a more detailed master plan for these first 200 dwellings, which include retail and commercial space, recreation grounds and tennis courts, and a school; we are now working on the next phases to the north, east and west, including early designs for the main high street of Tornagrain, planned around a large new town square.

The design of the houses draws closely on the appearance of local towns and Darnaway Estate buildings, combined with more contemporary elements in rear courtyards and mews. The town as a whole allows for a huge variety of architectural scale and language, with the most recent phases becoming more formal in character.

The town founding ceremony was held in the summer of 2015 – the start of a lifetime’s project, bringing an extraordinary new town for the Highlands to fruition.