Architecture: Design brings art to the disabled: Lord Attenborough announces the winners of an 'Independent' contest for a project with a difference

Lord Attenborough couldn't be happier with the Leicester arts centre for the disabled that bears his name. 'I don't know of a comparable concept,' he says. 'It is a centre created to cope with every form of disability; not a day care centre, but a university art school and arts teaching and research facility that will lift the quality of life and art for hundreds of people who otherwise would never have been given the chance.'

On Monday night, the actor and film director announced the winner of an architectural competition, sponsored by the Independent and organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects, for the design of a purpose-built Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts. At an awards ceremony held in the Engineering Building (designed by James Stirling and James Gowan) at Leicester University, Lord Attenborough presented the first prize of pounds 6,000 to Ian Taylor, a young London architect, for his first solo building project.

The judges' summary said: 'This design has a classic simplicity. Outside, it has a luminosity and openness that represents the ideals of the centre. The measured simplicity of the floor plans is stunning and tackles all the issues of disability without being a self-conscious hostage to disability design regulations. The alchemy of space, people and resources will promote a vibrant working environment in which the vision of the centre will flourish.'

Second prize ( pounds 2,000) was awarded to Roger Hawkins, Lucy Montgomery and Andy Gollifer, of Hawkins Brown Ltd, and third ( pounds 1,500) to Honor Thomson, Simon Usher and Dorian Wiszniewski.

The centre was set up in 1982 by Eleanor Hartley and provided sculpture classes for visually handicapped people as part of the University of Leicester's adult education faculty. But the ambitions of Dr Hartley and her colleagues, Rachel Sullivan and Alan Caine, grew as they realised how much their course was needed and how successful it was in turning out quality work from its cramped studios.

In 1990, Lord Attenborough, president of the Muscular Dystrophy Group since 1971 and chairman of the Committee of Inquiry into the Arts and Disabled People (1983- 85), visited Dr Hartley and her team. (His father, Frederick Attenborough, was principal of Leicester College in its pre-university days.)

'I met them in the premises they have occupied for the past eight years, where, even for the able-bodied, access was not easy. Yet in those inconvenient and unprepossessing surroundings I was privileged to witness a kind of miracle. I saw people who were blind confidently painting the most wonderful pictures and expertly shaping clay into exciting sculptures. And, although they could not see them, those same people, young and old, were talking passionately about colour, movement and form.

'As I saw so clearly, however, the centre was in desperate need of new, easily accessible, purpose-built premises if it was to expand and accelerate its crucial programme of practical research. A suitable site was bought on our behalf through the generosity of Leicester City Challenge, and the design for the building has been selected following a successful architectural competition sponsored by the Independent.

'In addition, the university has generously agreed to underwrite future running expenses. What is urgently needed now is the money to cover the actual cost and equipping of the new centre.'

That cost is pounds 2m. With help from public and private donations, pounds 750,000 has been raised for construction of Ian Taylor's appealing and highly intelligent building. The centre needs to raise an extra pounds 250,000 before work starts and pounds 500,000 to complete construction. Another pounds 500,000 is needed to equip the building to the standard that Dr Hartley and her colleagues believe would ensure the centre's success.

The competition attracted 128 entries and was judged by Lord Attenborough; Dr Hartley and her colleagues; Kenneth Edwards, vice- chancellor of Leicester University; Peter Randall of the Royal Institute of British Architects; Maxwell Hutchinson, chairman of East Midlands Art; and Jonathan Glancey of the Independent.

The brief required architects to design a university arts education building that made optimum use of a small and overlooked campus site, provided a highly adaptable interior, looked like real architecture, rather than a brick box tricked up for easy planning approval, and would be practical and a delight to use and run.

Building will begin on the site as soon as a further pounds 250,000 can be raised. Donations can be made to Dr Eleanor Hartley, Richard Attenborough Centre, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH (telephone 0533 522455).

Ian Taylor's design for the Richard Attenborough Centre - his first solo building - is free of frills and fuss. The above model cannot do justice to the subtlety of the project, but what appealed to the judges was its practicality, warmth and intelligence. The building will work hard for its living and yet look glamorous, especially by night, when it will glow like a beacon. By day it will be filled with natural light, ingeniously brought into all parts of the interior through a sophisticated window arrangement.

(Photographs omitted)