PROJECT REPORT: TIMBER BUILDS 57
demand was exceeding the buildings’ capabilities. The architects quickly realised the building would have to “flex with seasonal demands,” as Hodder explains. On the other hand, there were also a set of what he describes as “prescribed” components; classrooms (for both school children and adults as part of the RHS’ education programme), offices, and a kitchen serving the restaurant. “Our initial idea was the prescribed components being in their own buildings, and then the visitor centre being this flexible space,” he says. “We then spent a lot of time shuffling these components around, always with the idea that they would sit beneath the overarching ‘umbrella’ structure in which the membership area, shop, and restaurant would sit.”
Design
A key part of the designers’ context-focused site response was achieving a ‘horizontal composition.’ Although in part intended to help minimise the building’s impact on the landscape, it was predominantly inspired by the Bridgewater Canal which sits roughly four metres above the garden on the horizon, along with the site’s strong treeline. “We wanted this building to be a very delicate intervention within the garden, we didn’t want it to rise above the treeline; the horizontal form was responding to that horizon.”
Although they wanted the building to be a discrete addition, it formed a key
ADF SEPTEMBER 2022
part of the overall masterplan, as an important reference point. To this end, the roof folds down at the main entrance to ‘signpost’ it for visitors. It’s visible from most points in the garden, which Hodder describes as a “happy accident; when you see it in the distance so you’ve always got that point of orientation.”
This kind of fortuitous outcome also happened with the design of a long lawn stretching out from the north of the building. The architect of the original estate, Edward Blore, had played with this ‘axis’ throughout the gardens, but it wasn’t until Hodder was standing on the lawn looking back towards the building that he realised “they were building on the axis Blore originally created.”
The garden inevitably remained a focus throughout, so design details were included to reflect that. As well as timber, the practice utilised glazing extensively to connect visitors to the garden (with timber louvres to mitigate solar gain). The wall directly ahead of visitors upon entering the building is fully glazed, allowing views along the meadow to the east, as are the north and south elevations. “The building needed to orientate visitors, but at the same time, it was about throwing your attention out into the garden,” says Hodder. At the north and south ends, the roof extends beyond the glazed curtain walling, the former being the entrance to the garden and the latter looking out into the outdoor plant sales area.
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TREES
The biggest design challenge was resolved by the structural timber ‘trees’ which were specified to avoid a frame whose girth would have compromised the aesthetic
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