Project: A new wing to the existing visitor centre at the National Wildflower centre, to include visitor facilities, growing and production plant.
Value: £5,000,000
Client: National Wildflower Centre
Status: Competition Entry

The proposed visitor centre and seed production complex at the National Wildflower Centre, Knowsley, has been designed to echo a cluster of simple pitched roof buildings, long and low in profile, hugging the perimeter of the walled garden within which it stands. 

The building is single storey in mass, and designed to respond to the immediate context such as the adjacent stable blocks and housing typologies, whilst at the same time aiming to contrast the adjacent award winning visitor building, designed by Hodder and Partners in 2001.

Programmatically, the building has been planned, such that all the key ‘internal' public and operational activity is housed within a series of increasingly voluminous spaces located at ground floor. Above these, the majority of the first floor is open to the elements accommodating the plant production operation, with supporting glass houses for seed planting. An additional enclosed break out space/gallery with open roof terrace is also included directly over the main entrance gallery allowing for more flexible operation during busy periods.

In material terms, the exterior is wrapped in a skin of open timber battens, much like a pagoda or trellis, and is intended to encourage plants to take seed and grow over it. Over time, it is hoped the building would become background as it gradually grows into the landscape it sits within