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The museum and library are to be positioned on a site in the heart of the town. The site already contains buildings that have strong associations with Castleford’s intellectual and economic history. The Carnegie Library is a memory of a powerful movement towards mass education and literacy. The Market Hall was a significant public trading space, with echoes of the Basilica at the heart of every Roman town. It is our intention to maintain these important spaces as links to the deeper history of the site and the town. This must be done in a way that is more than cosmetic. The spaces themselves can be kept and reinvented.

Our strategy is to keep the high rooms of the old Carnegie Library, and to reinvent the Market Hall as an open public space in the town. It is an almost-indoor public square, a place of exchange. The floor of the square is a mosaic-like surface that uses materials from glassmaking, ceramics and coal mining. In Roman terms this represents earth, fire and memory. Above the Hall the roof is like a floating ship (Nave) that contains the main Reading Room of the library. When you look up, you will see the faces of readers absorbed at their desks, beyond them you will see light streaming through from high clerestorey.

We propose one completely new building on the site. A tower, that contains community and museum spaces and is crowned by a large temporary exhibition Space offering 360degree vista over Castleford. This is a slender tower that can be seen for miles around. It acts as a marker, and it indicates that the site is a destination. .