Five practices have been shortlisted in an architectural competition to design a £2m visitor centre in Cambridgeshire, UK. The firms, Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects Ltd, Boyarsky Murphy Architects, Feilden + Mawson LLP, Foster Lomas Ltd, and Shiro Studio Ltd, were selected on 12 February as part of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) competition after submitting designs for the Great Fen Visitor Centre project.

A European-wide competition, over 201 entries were received, with the short-listed teams presenting their developed design concepts to the judging Panel in late April of this year. Comprising 3,000 ha, the scheme, which has been described as ‘one of sweeping scale and ambition’ will transform the mostly arable land into an area with lakes, ponds, fen, marshes, grassland and woodland over the next 50 to 100 years.

The new visitor centre will also be constructed on the site, which contains endangered species of fenland plants. RIBA Competitions is managing the competition on behalf of the Great Fen partnership, which consists of the Environment Agency, Huntingdonshire District Council, Middle Level Commissioners, Natural England and The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.