The Hive, Worcester

The Hive
General information
Type	Library
Architectural style	Postmodern
Address	Sawmill Walk, The Butts
Town or city	Worcester
Country	England
Opened	2 July 2012 (2012-07-02)
Cost	£29.7 million
Client	Worcestershire County Council University of Worcester
Technical details
Floor area	12,371m2
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Structural engineer	Hyder Consulting Atelier One
Services engineer	Max Fordham
Main contractor	Galliford Try
Awards and prizes	BCI Sustainability Award (2013) Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award for Outstanding Library Team - University of Worcester (2013) RIBA National Award (2013) RIBA: West Midlands Award (2013) RIBA: West Midlands Sustainability Award (2013) Civic Trust Award - FCB (2013) RICS Awards West Midlands: The Award for Design and Innovation (2013) RICS Awards West Midlands: The Community Benefit Award (2013) Guardian University Award: Contribution to the Local Community through The Hive - University of Worcester (2013) Building Magazine: Sustainable Project of the Year - The Hive, Max Fordham and FCB Studios (2013) CIBSE: New build project of the year (value above £5 million) - FCB (2013) Civic Trust Award (2013) BREAAM: Outstanding 86.4% (2012) UK Public Private Partnership Awards - Best Sustainability in a Project (2012) Post Tensioned Society Awards: Building of the Year (2012) South Worcestershire Building Control: Building Excellence Award (2012) West Midlands Regional Planning Award (2012) Bentley Be Inspired: Infrastructure Best Practices Symposium and Awards - Innovation in Generative Design (2009)
Website
www.thehiveworcester.org

The Hive, is a large golden-coloured building in Worcester, England, which houses the fully integrated Worcestershire County Council City of Worcester public library, the University of Worcester's academic library, Worcestershire Record Office the county Archive and Worcestershire Archaeology Service.

The Hive was the first library in Europe to house both a university book collection and a public lending library replacing the City of Worcester library in The Tything and the University of Worcester's Peirson library. It was opened to the public on 2 July 2012 and officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in her Diamond Jubilee year (12 July 2012).

The library houses over a quarter of a million books including substantial children's & academic libraries, whilst the secure archive provides storage to over 12 miles (19 km) of archive collections including William Shakespeare’s marriage bond to Anne Hathaway and more than 45,000 records of historic monuments and buildings. The Hive is also home to Worcestershire County Council customer services "Worcestershire Hub"; a business centre; café; and, meeting facilities. There are a total of 350 computers distributed around the building, for joint use by members of the public and the university's students. Public use WiFi connectivity is also provided.

The award-winning design of the building uses advanced environmental technology to improve sustainability, including computer controlled ventilation & river water cooling negating the use of a traditional air conditioning system. A bio-mass boiler is provided for heating as required.

Costing £60-million, The Hive was the subject of a complex private finance initiative programme, which brought together the designers with the building contractors Galliford Try Ltd and the mechanical and electrical engineering consultants Max Fordham LLP. Originally developed in Australia in the 1980s, PFI is a method of procuring the design and construction of major public buildings by using private sector funding and contracting services. The Hive's joint commissioning clients were the University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council. Funding was also provided by the National Lottery and the British government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Education.

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