NORFOLK HUB.

A new learning and information centre in Norwich forms the heart of an electronic network aimed at tackling rural isolation and improving educational opportunities.

Norfolk is the UK's fifth largest county and one of its most sparsely populated. The rapid evolution of IT networks was seen as an opportunity to develop electronic information and learning systems which will help overcome problems of distance and rural isolation. At the hub of this network is the new Millennium Centre in Norwich, designed by Michael Hopkins & Partners. The brief called for a centre of knowledge, information and learning on a prominent site in the heart of the city. Branch libraries around the county will be electronically linked to the new building, which takes the place of Norwich's old Central Library destroyed by fire in 1994.

The site lies on the south-west corner of the city's popular, bustling market square, opposite the fifteenth-century church of St Peter Mancroft. A simple horseshoe-shaped building, three storeys high, encloses a variety of different spaces, including a library, multi-media auditorium, and a business and learning centre. Oriented on an east-west axis, the curved end of the horseshoe sits in a garden, rather as the nearby church lies in its churchyard, while the eastern end opens up and addresses the city through an imposing glass wall. The various spaces wrap around and overlook a central covered courtyard, which constitutes the informal, social focus of the scheme. In the great tradition of nineteenth-century arcades, the courtyard is glazed, providing a generous public space less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of Norwich weather than the city's network of streets and market places. Here people can meet, congregate and linger in a cafe or get their bearings before making use of the building's facilities. Li ghtweight translucent fabric blinds stretched over the glass help to diffuse heat and glare.

The Norwich project continues and develops many of the practice's preoccupations, notably in the use of a horseshoe-shaped form, so memorably employed at Glyndebourne Opera House (AR June 1994) and subsequently at Emmanuel College (AR February 1996). And, like the new campus for Nottingham University (AR February 2000), it also reflects a concern with energy efficiency and environmental control. The thermal mass of the building's concrete frame naturally moderates temperature fluctuations and a heat recovery plant minimizes energy loss. As with all the Hopkins's buildings, materials are used with crafted, elegant economy. The earthbound solidity of brick external walls contrasts with the lightweight glass roof. Conceived as an accretive extension of the public realm, Norwich's Millennium Centre adds to the city's social, intellectual and civic life.