JAMES ROACH / PORT FOLIO 2013
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CONTENTS 04 / Great Fen Visitor Centre Personal competition entry 2013
16 / Clumber Park Winery Third year university project 2009
26 / Bankside Bikeshed Personal competition entry 2010
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Visitor Centre/Great Fen 2013 Great Fen is an area of over 3000ha of grassland that, over the next century, will be transformed into a rich mix of woodland, ponds, fens, bogs and marshes. The area is publicly accessible, encouraging visitors to explore the fens for themselves. Plants and animals that were once prevalent in the area are reintroduced, with biodiversity being the driving factor behind the scheme. The visitor centre serves as the primary focal point for the Great Fen, attracting those interested in landscape, wildlife and habitats as well as school visits and local tourists.
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Great Fen is situated in Cambridgeshire, England, 8 miles south-east of Peterborough. The site sits to the north of the fen on the B660, locally known as Long Drove and can be accessed by the A1(M).
Visitor Centre
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Site
Woodland
Roads
Water
Great Fen Visitor Centre
The primary design intention is to maximise the views of the surrounding fenland. This is achieved using a lightweight design with all public areas of the building opening out into the environment, be it visually in the form of full height windows or physically in the form of windows acting as doors. The cafĂŠ has overspill outside for the summer months and sunny days.
Formed from six distinct, tall volumes the visitor centre operates on a clear public/private relationship. Internally, the public sections of the building blend together with some walls removed and some made of glass. This interaction between the volumes juxtaposes the apparent rigid appearance of the exterior.
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Great Fen Visitor Centre
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Kitchen 35m2 Retail 44m2 Toilets 47m2 Meeting room 58m2 Staff services 60m2 Exhibition space 63m2 Outdoor activity space 64m2 Maintenance & storage 70m2
CafĂŠ 166m2
Reception and circulation 276m2
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Great Fen Visitor Centre
Access (red arrows) is from three distinct locations: the reception entrance, cafĂŠ and outdoor activity area. Even though the public spaces are provided with wide views of the surrounding landscape, visitors can be greeted with more powerful, framed vistas of the fenland when exploring the building (blue arrows). Around each corner is a long corridor, leading to a tantalising explosion of light and greenery.
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Available to be used all year round, the trellised activity area houses a canopy that can be pulled across when the weather takes a turn for the worse.
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B
Section A-A 1:200 B A
Section B-B 1:200
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Great Fen Visitor Centre
The open nature of the building is apparent right from the front door. Large glass windows showcase the interior and invite visitors in.
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Great Fen Visitor Centre
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Winery/Clumber Park 2009 Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, now owned and operated by the National Trust, spans 3,000 acres including woodland and a serpentine lake covering 87 acres. It’s pasture fields are the perfect location for a vineyard and an on-site winery to process and distribute the grapes grown in the park and the surrounding areas. The winery explores the processes of wine making and the tectonics of industrial beverage production on a relatively small scale. The experience of the visitor is the foundation of the building, transporting them from dark spaces to light, enclosed to exposed, experiencing the processes physically and mentally.
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Clumber Park Winery
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Visitors enter the winery descending through the carved out landscape and into the dark and narrow lobby with the view of surrounding trees tempting them in.
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Clumber Park Winery
Turning through the entrance, visitors are then led into the bright and expansive fermentation room and up through the tanks (page 17).
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The internal elevations show the prevalence of hard materials, enforcing the industrial aesthetic and juxtaposing the soft landscaping outside.
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Clumber Park Winery
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The tasting room provides visitors with brilliant panoramic views around the vineyard and park beyond, including the serpentine lake to the south and the chapel to the east.
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Clumber Park Winery
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Bikeshed/Bankside, London 2010 The competition called for sustainable, modular and portable solutions to cycle parking to serve the Bankside area of London. The lightweight structure of softwood and polycarbonate acts as a shelter against the elements for cyclists as well as a secure store for their bicycles.
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jamesroach.co.uk