Savill Garden Visitor Centre, The Crown EstateThe Crown Estate held a design competition for this scheme, as they required a flagship building for the new visitor centre as the gateway to the gardens. The existing facilities were housed in three separate out-dated buildings with leaking roofs and single glazing. The client wanted to lead by example on an environmentally friendly, sustainable solution. The challenge was to create a new single building that complemented and blended into its environment providing a large gift shop, shop display areas, 120 person café, 80 person restaurant, conference rooms, exhibition space, 100 person seminar facility, public toilets, external terrace dining area, green house, external garden centre and a plant sales area. The design competition was won with a leaf design that encloses the various facilities all under a single large spanning roof. The specialist roof construction comprises a four-layer interlocking lath timber, doubly curved gridshell construction with three domes. It is the largest timber gridshell construction in the UK at 100m in length. The environmental and sustainable aspect of the design included:
This pioneering project provides a unique flagship building for the Crown Estate portfolio. There is only one other timber gridshell roof like it in the UK at the Weald and Downland museum. |
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