Designing Timber issue 10 for online - Flipbook - Page 31
eilden Fowles’
enchanting
transformation
of the Natural
History Museum’s outdoor
landscape has reshaped
the visitor experience into a
choreographed journey through
geological history – while
signi昀椀cantly improving access
and educational opportunities.
Where visitors to the
museum, arriving from the
main South Kensington
underground station,
previously encountered a
large outdoor staircase, they
are now led along a fully
accessible path embedded
within a landscape that tells a
larger story.
This reimagined route
begins with a ravine-like
opening between huge,
stacked rocks representing
the Earth’s geologic period
before plant life evolved. As
visitors progress, the path
becomes gradually lusher, with
a curated planting scheme
that shows the emergence and
evolution of 昀氀ora. The result
is an outdoor sequence that
mirrors the natural history
within the museum itself.
F
designers for the whole
project and acted as principal
coordinators, overseeing
collaboration across more
than ten specialist teams.
“The project’s brief and
vision were clear from the
outset,” said director Edmund
Fowles. “This would be an
'urban nature' project with an
overarching aim of fostering a
connection with nature among
young people and cultivating
environmental awareness and
stewardship. We understood
that the buildings were there
to enable this experience,
rather than de昀椀ne it.”
↓
Images © Jim
A garden kitchen cafe
Stephenson: the
The Garden Kitchen serves as
a café, events space and a
seasonal storage and display
the cafe pavilion is
structural frame of
constructed using
Douglas 昀椀r glulam,
with solid Douglas 昀椀r
timber where possible.
Architecture in service
of landscape
Integrated within the
revamped site are two new
buildings: the Garden Kitchen
café and the Nature Activity
Centre. With the project
conceived as a landscape-led
initiative to promote outdoor
learning and biodiversity
education, the architectural
interventions were designed to
play a supportive rather than
leading role.
Architects Feilden Fowles
were appointed as lead
DESIGNING TIMBER
31
NOV/DEC 2025
space for exotic plants. The
building employs a low-tech
construction philosophy with
natural materials and highperformance detailing. Its
structural frame, built by
TDUK members Xylotek uses
UK-grown solid Douglas 昀椀r (in
both C16 and C24 strengthgrades) where possible,
supplemented with French
Douglas Fir glulam for longer
spans and columns.
The building features a low
entrance that rises to an
elevated section in the main
part of the café to create a
taller glazed lantern. Large
bespoke timber sliding doors
to the south and operable
timber shutters to the north
allow for natural ventilation.
The rich, pink-toned Douglas
INSPIRATION
———— REIMAGINING NATURAL HISTORY ————
