RHS Garden Bridgewater is the fifth RHS garden and one of the largest gardening projects undertaken in Europe in recent years. The transformation of this 154-acre green space will enrich the lives of local communities and their environment for the future.
Hodder+Partners was invited to design a new world class visitor centre, known as the Welcome Building, to provide a gateway to the gardens as well as a visitor meeting and interaction point, restaurant, gift shop, offices and educational spaces.
The building is designed predominantly as one open space, allowing visitors to flow between the various uses: ticketing, learning, retail, plant sales and café. All these public elements are contained under a single overarching glulam timber diagrid, supported on structural glulam trees, allowing the space to flex in response to seasonal demands. The roof extends beyond the enclosure to the North and South, blurring the edge between building and landscape, where it turns up and down at its edge, responding to the location of entrances, expressing specific uses, framing views and forming solar shading.
The horizontal form is broken by a series of projecting timber boxes sitting below the main roof line, these house more prescribed uses such as the kitchen, WCs, offices and classrooms. The timber forms continue to extend east beyond the building with a timber decking floating over a newly formed lake.
Natural light permeates the building either through Siberian Larch louvred curtain walling, or filters through the diagrid roof via two rooflights, one running centrally and one creating a glasshouse environment.
Sustainability is at the heart of the proposals and embedded in the work of the RHS, the building benefits from rainwater harvesting, green roofs, ground source heat pumps, underfloor heating and cooling and natural cross ventilation. The visually impressive timber roof and extensive timber cladding provide a constant reminder of the environmental aims as well as sequestering an approximated 350 tonnes of carbon into the structure of the building.
The Welcome Building at RHS Garden Bridgewater has been designed to be a complementary intervention within the landscape, providing a highly sustainable and world class facility for the RHS and future visitors.
The winners of the 2021 award and 2020 award will both be announced at the Property and Construction Awards Dinner on 3rd March at Victoria Warehouse. You can book your tickets for this prestigious black-tie event here.
Image: Credit - Peter Cook