“In a way bringing the river back to life is what we’re most proud of”


Widening the River Test was a key part of the project


considered important to the conservation area of Laverstoke and Freefolk. The River Test is a site of special scien-


tifi c interest (SSSI), which means the habitat and the ecology is very important. English Heritage was involved in everything we did with the buildings and the Environment Agency was involved in anything we did relating to the river. We had bats, we had newts, we had the


breeding season of the trout in the river. The entire project programme became based on the fauna, which dictated when we could start building and when we could block the river to build the glasshouses. People often think of local government and government agencies as being barriers to innovation who always want to leave things as they are, but English Heritage and the Environment Agency saw that we were trying to bring the site and the river- way back to its original majesty and were extremely supportive.”


Will Brix, Bombay Sapphire:


“English Heritage described us as a knight in shining armour!”


CLADmag 2015 ISSUE 1


Was it important to have the local community on board? Will Brix, Bombay Sapphire: “Laverstoke is a small village with 70 houses which were originally built for people who worked at the mill. A developer had bought the land before we acquired it, and planned to build 70 more houses, which would have radically altered the character of the village, but there was no mention of investment in the community in that scheme. People favoured this return to industrial usage. We had unanimous backing, which is uncommon for a project of this scale. People think it’s great we’re bringing high quality goods manufacturing back to Laverstoke.”


Eliot Postma, Heatherwick Studio: “People here worked at the mill or are chil- dren of those who worked at the mill. We had consultations where members of the public were invited to comment on the design. There was a really good turnout, because the local community is invested. “The consultations were an opportunity for them to comment on the design and for us to incorporate their feedback.


“We worked with an executive architect,


GWP, and representatives from Heatherwick Studio, Bombay Sapphire and GWP were pres- ent at all the public consultations to answer questions and reassure the community.”


Do you have a highlight, or a favourite part of the project? Eliot Postma, Heatherwick Studio: “In a way bringing the river back to life is what we’re most proud of in this project. It’s unrecognisable from when we fi rst arrived and visually it’s a really lovely stretch of river now. We’re thrilled to have been a part of making that happen.”


Will Brix, Bombay Sapphire: “There are so many reasons we chose this site, but the most important for me is the hardest to convey – the emotional experience you get from being here. Even before the glasshouses were built, just standing in the courtyard was amazing, and now the site has been transformed it’s even more powerful. That courtyard is the thing that does it for me… you can feel the centuries of history. It’s really, really beautiful.”


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