Designing Timber issue 10 for online - Flipbook - Page 33
"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."
Edmund Fowles,
Director, Feilden Fowles
While the café is civic in form,
the Nature Activity Centre
o昀昀ers a quiet and immersive
experience. Sitting tucked
away into the landscape, and
more expressive of its timber
construction, the single-storey
building has been designed to
transport visiting children from
the city to the countryside.
Its asymmetric pitched
roof – formed from solid
Douglas Fir rafters and purlins
– projects several meters
beyond the façade to provide
INSPIRATION
INSPIRATION
Retreat and discovery
↑
↓
The activity centre
Section drawing of
features bespoke olid
the Nature Activity
Douglas 昀椀r windows and
Centre: a single-storey
doors, plywood joinery
pitched roof building,
and custom designed
surrounded by trees and
furniture.
hedgerows.
DESIGNING TIMBER
33
NOV/DEC 2025
a sheltered outdoor learning
space, as well as celebrating
the capture of rainwater. The
roof is supported on a series
of longitudinal glulam timber
beams which run the length
of the building and bear onto
solid limestone walls and
columns below. Western Red
Cedar shingles, supplied by
TDUK member Marley and
artfully detailed with bands of
triangular trimmed pieces, clad
the roof. Screw piles were used
to avoid disturbing the roots of
a neighbouring oak tree.
The building houses
a classroom, a science
laboratory, and support areas
for the museum’s garden sta昀昀.
“It is a hardworking building,”
reports Fowles. “The space
