English Heritage has unveiled designs for the proposed new £25m visitor centre at Stonehenge after submitting a planning application for the scheme to Wiltshire Council.

The facility, which is to be built 1.5 miles (2.4km) to the west of the historic site at Airman's Corner, has been designed by London-based architects Denton Corker Marshall to be environmentally sensitive to its surroundings.

A pair of single-storey structures - one glass and one timber - are to be built as part of the scheme which will house exhibitions, a café, a shop and toilets, while a low-key transit system similar to one in use at Cornwall's Eden Project will also be provided.

Existing car park and visitor facilities at the World Heritage Site will be removed and returned to grassland under English Heritage's plans, as well as the closure of the A344 road and byways within the site to motorised vehicles. However, a minimal security facility and emergency toilets will remain in place.

Wiltshire Council is now due to launch a further public consultation as part of the planning process for the scheme, which received support from the government in May and will receive funding from English Heritage, the Highways Agency, the DCMS and the Department for Transport.

English Heritage's Stonehenge project director, Loraine Knowles, said: "The new centre is designed to blend into the World Heritage landscape which visitors will pass through on their way to the stones.

"It will provide enhanced opportunities for education and interpretation, and has first class facilities in keeping with Stonehenge's status as a world-renowned tourist attraction."

Stephen Quinlan, Denton Corker Marshall director, added: "Our proposal, above all, seeks not to compromise the solidity and timelessness of the stones, but to satisfy the brief with a design which is universally accessible, environmentally sensitive, and at the same time appears almost transitory in nature."

Image: English Heritage