London studio Reed Watts has accomplished a customer centre for the medieval Ightham Mote manor home in Kent, creating an uncovered timber and hempcrete construction that mimics the Grade I-listed constructing.
Operated by the Nationwide Belief, the 317-square-metre centre offers a reception, store, storeroom and places of work inside the walled backyard of the manor home, to accommodate a rise in customer numbers.
Reed Watts designed the centre as a recent tackle the design of Ightham Mote itself, utilizing an uncovered timber body infilled with hempcrete and lime render to imitate its half-timbered, wattle and daub construction.
Half-timbering is a standard type of development the place a load‑bearing timber body is left uncovered on a constructing’s exterior.
“We checked out quite a lot of websites for the constructing and opted to construct subsequent to the Nationwide Belief’s unique, ‘short-term’ ticket workplace that it constructed when taking on the property in 1985,” defined Reed Watts co-founder Matt Reed.
“From right here, there’s a lovely journey right down to the home the place its chimneys, roofs, timber body and moat steadily seem from between the timber as you stroll down into the valley,” he informed Dezeen.
“A key idea for us was to design a constructing that honours the development of the present timber-framed Manor Home by way of a easy expression of the development supplies.”
To scale back its visible affect, the bottom flooring of the centre is “hunkered down” beneath the peak of the encircling backyard partitions, with solely its smaller, lantern-like clerestory degree seen by way of the encircling timber.
This lantern, framed by reddish-brown metalwork, pulls mild into the store on the constructing’s centre, the place uncovered timber columns sit in opposition to partitions of precast hempcrete blocks.
Going through north, a big spherical window aligned with the central axis of the walled backyard provides guests a glimpse of the positioning as they transfer into the adjoining reception, which opens out onto a patio beneath a timber pergola.
Externally, the hempcrete partitions that infill the timber body have been coated in pale lime render, whereas the home windows are framed by sections of candy chestnut battens.
Recycled railway sleepers clad inventive centre beside Camden’s Roundhouse
“Nearly all the pieces is on present from the timber body with metal flitch plates, hempcrete partitions and lime render exterior,” Watts stated. “The home acted as inspiration with its uncovered timber body, lime render, brickwork and stone detailing.”
“The clerestory varieties the principle focus for the area, however it’s a easy spherical window on the northern elevation that has created probably the most curiosity from guests,” he added. “Youngsters particularly love to sit down within the window and guests usually take pictures by way of it to the backyard past.”
The centre incorporates an air-source warmth pump, pure air flow technique and excessive ranges of insulation, and in keeping with the studio, outperforms the framework set out within the Royal Institute of British Architect’s Sustainable Outcomes Information for 2025 by over 25 per cent.
Along with creating the customer centre, the London-based studio labored with panorama architects Colvin & Moggridge to enhance the encircling gardens, including drainage programs and new parking areas.
Reed Watts was established in 2015 by Watts alongside Jim Reed. The studio was beforehand a part of a staff that accomplished a inventive centre alongside Camden’s Roundhouse clad in previous railway sleepers.
Different customer centres not too long ago featured on Dezeen embody a ring-shaped constructing devoted to Maiji Mountain in Tianshui and a proposal for a rock-like construction on Taiwan’s shoreline by MVRDV.
The images is by Fred Howarth.
