A DESIGN has been chosen for the £19m National Army Museum North at Catterick Village.

Five groups of architects were asked to tender for the design which has now gone to the firm Austin-Smith: Lord.

Their design was considered to be responsive to the landscape of the 52-hectare site, south-east of Marne Barracks and beside the A1.

Entrance will be through a three-storey rotunda incorporating a shop, caf, education facilities, lecture theatre, and orientation area.

The rotunda roof forms a viewing platform for visitors to look out across the outside exhibition area - over displays such as redoubts and trenches, and demonstrations of heritage military vehicles in action.

From there visitors will move through to the 'contextual display gallery' which will recreate the different environments within which the British Army has operated - from the desert and the tropics to the arctic.

A temperate European habitat will then lead the viewer's eyes from the gallery within the building to the Yorkshire landscape beyond.

The arc-shaped 'vehicle study collection' area curving around the back of the building will house the museum's large collection of heritage military vehicles.

Museum assistant director David Smurthwaite said: "The plans provide practical spatial solutions to the problems of collections management and access. We are now evaluating which local materials can be used to achieve this design."

Austin-Smith: Lord spokesman Simon Pearce said: "The expansive nature of the site and the requirement for a landmark building suggested the need for a composition of simple and pure forms to create a scale and formality that would help to announce the building against the backdrop of Marne Barracks.

"This has been achieved in a design separable into three main elements, each of which has been given a different architectural treatment reflecting it's scale and function."

NAM North is scheduled for completion in summer 2005.