The winners of the 2014 Stirling Prize, Haworth Tompkins, have replaced Frank Gehry on a multi-million pound project to create a moderns sports and leisure complex in Brighton & Hove, UK.

Plans to renovate the city’s King Alfred site – a leisure centre “which no longer meets modern expectations and is expensive to operate and maintain” – were first mooted in 2005 when development company Karis proposed a £300m (US$436.1m, €389.9m) scheme designed by Gehry.

His vision for a multicoloured sports centre flanked by two crumpled, asymmetrical towers was hailed as visionary by some, and dismissed as ‘Tin Can Alley’ by its critics. The project was dropped in 2008 following the financial crisis.

A new procurement process to select a development partner was launched in October 2014 and Crest Nicholson were selected ahead of Bouygues – one of the developers of the new Battersea Power Station – in January 2016.

Haworth Tompkins – best known for their Stirling-winning design of Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre – will masterplan the site and the wider development, while LA Architects will design the sports centre and Willmott Dixon will construct the project. The complex will be formed by a series of cuboid towers and blocks.

The sports facility will feature an eight-lane swimming pool with a moveable floor and 352 spectator seats; a teaching pool and a 400sqm (4,300sq ft) leisure pool; a multi-purpose sports hall; a gymnastics centre; three indoor bowls halls; a martial arts dojo; and a 120-station fitness centre with a indoor cycling room, workout studio and a sauna suite.

The project will cost around £40m (US$58.1m, €51.9m), with the development of 560 flats across four new tower blocks on the site covering most of the cost and the council contributing £8m (US$11.6m, €10.3m).

Planning consultation will start in the second half of 2016.

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