Category: Commercial News

bi Design Architecture was founded in 1998 by practice director Darryn Buttrill, to offer architectural design services for both commercial and residential projects. Our team of 7 members of staff (not including the dogs!), have a combined 86 years of architectural experience and are based in our offices in Repton and Sutton Coldfield.

During those 25 years, our team have worked on over 1700 projects, ranging from bespoke, luxury houses to landmark local attractions, such as Mercia Marina at Willington, Burton Rugby Football Club and working with East Staffordshire Borough Council to successfully win the Project D funding bid for the regeneration of the Burton riverside area.

Since its inception, bi Design has offered an innovative approach to residential and commercial architecture, forming strong working relationships with local planning authorities, with an extremely high success rate of achieving planning approval. 

Commenting on his 25 years in business, practice director Darryn said: “Throughout our 25 years in business, one key thing has been constant and of which I’m particularly proud and that’s the quality of architecture produced, we never rest on our laurels, and we always strive to produce designs that delight our clients and which we take personal pride in. The size of our business has allowed us to remain agile and give a personal touch to our designs. Fundamentally we are driven by design and we love the collaborative process required to arrive at each architectural solution.”

He added: “This 25-year milestone is a testament to our exceptional employees and the great client partnerships we have developed.”

The team have won many awards over the years, most recently in 2022 winning the Burton Civic Society Design Award for ‘Best New Building’ for their bespoke design of Burton Rugby Football Club’s new home in Tatenhill.

In May 2016, we also won ‘Best New Building’ awarded by Burton on Trent Civic Society for the 40-bedroom River Side Care Home in Stapenhill.

One significant project in the portfolio is Mercia Marina in Willington where the Boardwalk building won 3 awards in the Local Authority Building Control Awards 2015: ‘Best Regional Small Commercial Building’, the Chairman’s award for the ‘Best Building in the Region’ beating the King Richard the 3rd Visitor Centre in Leicester and the Velodrome in Derby and then went on to win the ‘Best Small Commercial Building’ in the UK, beating Zaha Hadid’s Serpentine Sackler Building in Westminster, London and the Battle of Britain Building in Bristol. 

Since winning the awards for the Boardwalk building at Mercia Marina, we have continued to design additional phases of the development – the Piazza building was shortlisted as a finalist in the ‘Best Large Commercial Building’ category of the East Midlands LABC Building Excellence Awards 2019.

A full list of awards can be found here.

Work has started for our client Little Ripley Day Nurseries at their new site in Shenstone Woodend near Lichfield.

Within a designated green belt area, we gave the former 1950s building a complete remodel having previously been a police house and residential dwelling before a day nursery. We were able to Increase the property by 56% with additional first-floor accommodation; taking it from 251m2 to 392m2, with a 40% increase in built volume and increasing the child occupancy from mid-forties to mid-seventies.

This isn’t the first project we’ve worked on for the company who have 15 nurseries throughout the Midlands, we also transformed their nursery in South Parade, Sutton Coldfield. 

We’ve just received approval for this commercial extension and renovation for industrial sensor specialist, Longvale Ltd for their building on Lancaster Park in Needwood, Burton on Trent.

We’re delighted to be involved in this second phase of development, having designed the existing unit in 2015 – transforming its appearance from a standard, generic commercial building to an eye-catching, bespoke design.

For phase 2, this large extension for office and manufacturing use will complement the existing building using a mixture of composite and aluminium cladding in horizontal and diagonal patterns mixed with smooth render. The existing building will also benefit from additional renovation to update the external appearance of the remainder of the facade untouched by phase 1.

Additional first floor space 233m2, extension 290m2 over two floors. total building size 1942m2 over two floors

Further details coming soon.

Currently under consultation with South Derbyshire District Council is the proposed new development at Mercia Marina, Willington, Derbyshire’s largest waterside marina attraction.

A mixed used development consisting of retail shops, offices, café/restaurant and luxury apartments, this will be a stunning addition to the Marina.

No stranger to Mercia Marina, we designed the award-winning Boardwalk and Piazza buildings 

 

Further details of the application can be found here.

A  new detached single storey building with Class E a, b,c,d & g (i) use is proposed at Mercia Marina, Willington – Derbyshire’s largest waterside attraction, for our existing clients, Madecorn Leisure. Designed for the Marina office as its main and intended use, but with the flexibility to be able to use the building within the constraints of most parts of Class E, it provides a versatile space to adapt to the future needs of the day-to-day running of the Marina.  

 

Accessed from within the public area of Mercia Marina on the south end, the proposed building is adjacent to the boaters amenity block at the secure gateway, between the private domain of the Marina and the public domain.

 

Orientated so it’s parallel to the Marina, in a simple rectangle shape, with an intricate slate roof made up of 6 angled verge gables which draw inspiration from the award-winning Boardwalk and Piazza and creates a point of interest from all angles as the building is very visible to the North East, South East and South West elevation. Working in harmony with the Boardwalk and Piazza buildings, yet still unique, the building will be made from a mixture of timber cladding, white render and cement cladding.

 

Take a look at our wide portfolio of commercial developments here