The Winston Churchill Centre for Learning and Education
The Winston Churchill Centre for Learning and Education
Built to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion, this Centre includes an education room, providing a place for future generations to understand Britain’s role in the Battle of Normandy and learn lessons for the future.
Built from pre-fabricated timber panels with a cross-laminated timber (CLT) roof, the new building will house two educational exhibition galleries telling stories of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, curated by The Royal British Legion. It will include a classroom for use by schools from the UK, France and beyond as well as a shop and a café.
The Centre will be free-of-charge to visit and helps to fulfil the Normandy Memorial Trust’s ambition to allow future generations to learn from the events of summer 1944 and keep alive the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The Centre is being built on the site of the British Normandy Memorial, which commemorates the D-Day landings and subsequent campaign to liberate Paris with 24,422 names inscribed on the memorial recognising the men and women who gave their lives under British Command. We were the engineers and urban designers for the Memorial, which completed in 2021 on budget and only six weeks behind programme, despite the challenges of working overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our work won the FIDIC Contract of the Year Award 2021 (the International Federation of Consulting Engineers).
The formal opening of the new Centre will be a key feature in the 80th anniversary of D-Day commemorations on 6 June 2024. It has been funded through a £600,000 donation from BAE Systems, as well as contributions from the Ministry of Defence; the Normandy Region; the Department of Calvados and the Seulles Terre et Mer Community of Communes.
Client: Normandy Memorial Trust
Architects: Barker Langham