AN architect who visited Jodrell Bank as a child is one of the lead designers of the observatory’s new £3 million discovery centre.

Julian Gitsham says he feels like his life has come full circle after being inspired by the iconic Lovell Telescope as a youngster and now working to help secure its future.

The 45-year-old, who used to live in Branden Drive, is a managing partner in the award-winning Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios in London.

He is leading the project to build a new-look facility at Jodrell Bank to inspire budding scientists and showcase cutting-edge research.

Julian, who attended Norbury Booths School and Knutsford High School, said: “That was always what was so nice about the project.

“I used to visit Jodrell Bank when I was at school. It’s amazing. Jodrell Bank is such a beautiful, iconic structure sat there on the landscape.

“You can see it from such a long way away. I remember it as being a mind-blowing thing.

“The questions that kept going through my mind were: ‘What’s it looking at? What’s out there and what has it found?”

Julian lived in Knutsford for 18 years before moving to Oxford to study architecture. His parents Sylvia and Mike still live in the town.

The project he is working on for Jodrell Bank will include a ‘Planet Pavilion’ entrance building, a glass-walled café with views of the Lovell telescope, a ‘Space Pavilion’ for exhibitions and a ‘Galaxy Maze’ and a ‘Space Garden’ in the arboretum.

The centre is expected to attract thousands more visitors to the observatory every year and will help to generate a forecasted £26 million over the next decade.

“It’s an absolute privilege to be working on it,” added Julian.

“I’m working with intelligent and engaging people and working on something so significant that’s for my home town. It’s nice that I have that connection.

Building work on the project should start by late summer and should take around nine months to complete.

Julian also told the Guardian he is looking forward to introducing Jodrell Bank to his three daughters, Maya, four, Phoebe, nine, and Honor, 12.

He said: “They’re certainly coming as soon as it opens. We’ll stay with my parents so it should be a nice trip.”