The real joy of this project has been to work with our client’s

team, and a host of stakeholders and volunteers, to develop and evolve their project through the challenges of funding, detailing and procurement to deliver a completed project which offers far more than was thought possible at the outset.

We joined the project post-Planning to develop an initial scheme for the garden and pavilion by Land Use Consultants and Knox Bhavan Architects respectively. The pavilion was conceived as a discovered artefact, patinated and worn yet also sparkling like hidden treasure, and formed the first phase of building works. Fully glazed to the south, and with a window seat to the west, the building opens its wide sliding doors onto a limestone terrace and the gardens beyond, offering a large daylit room suitable for a wide range of purposes.

On reviewing the garden scheme we proposed a revised entrance route which forms a winding pathway drawing visitors on a journey through planting in the south of the garden and creating a small amphitheatre behind the museum’s reception. This revised scheme was able to attract funding, enabling the garden to become a living exhibit, connecting it with the existing museum both physically and functionally. Alongside this is a working garden implemented by volunteers, providing a busy, active space with fruits and herbs set around a lawn. Uncovered in the lost garden, a dipping pond forms a central point to the axial plan, with reclaimed flagstones connecting to an ornate gateway in the listed wall, and vistas offered to focal points around the garden.

With this project we have had a wonderful opportunity to create landscape and buildings together, unified in their conception, materials and details as a single design.