NEX is delighted to contribute to creating a benchmark in integrated
design at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show (Tuesday May 24th to
Saturday May 28th) working with Buro Happold and Chelsea Gold Medallist
Marcus Barnett on the creation of a pavilion for The Times Eureka
Garden, in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The design development of the pavilion focused on the ‘bio-mimicry’ of
leaf capillaries being embedded in the walls. The structural geometry
was finalised to use primary timber capillaries (300dp x 140wd) to form
the basic shape and supporting structure of the pavilion, inset with
secondary timber cassettes that hold the cladding.
Following completion
of the 3D modelling to meet architectural and structural needs,
specialist Swiss timber fabricators Blumer Lehmann undertook detailed
analysis and digital manufacturing of the structure.
The walls and roof are clad with recycled plastic ‘cells’ that frame
views out to the garden. Rain water literally runs down the capillaries
in the walls of the cube from the roof into the ground. The pavilion
sits on a timber raft constructed from 400mm deep spruce beams. Sand
ballast fills the voids between the raft timbers to give the pavilion
increased weight to resist uplift from wind loads.
Nothing will remain in the ground after the structure is dismantled
and transported to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew where it will be
erected along with the rest of the Times Eureka Garden, against the
backdrop of Kew’s historical UNESCO World Heritage Site landscape. It is
hoped the garden will be open to the public from early July for the
summer months.
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