Research Centre,
Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry

The client is an institute for research into methods of organic horticulture, and is based on a rural site on the southern fringes of Coventry. The Institute has evolved over a number of years, occupying a farmhouse, and a series of outhouses and temporary buildings, forming a complex site that also includes public gardens and a visitor centre. The architectural brief was to bring together all of the parts of the institute into a single building, and the response was a modular plan of eight separate units linked by a corridor/walkway, all with a common constructional theme.

This theme used timber as both the structural and cladding material, but also included a pre-cast concrete roof to provide a fair-faced ceiling and thermal mass into what would otherwise have been a lightweight building. To keep member sizes to a minimum Parallam was used; a composite formed by gluing together birch strands, and that is twice as strong and stiff as glulam timber. The structural form is a braced box, using simple post and beam arrangements, with diagonal timbers within walls to provide lateral stability. As always with timber structures, the connection details can increase member sizes, so careful detailing is essential. Beams sit on top of columns to make shear transfer easy, and shear plate connectors (cast steel discs) are used to increase allowable forces in steel bolts.

Architect ABQ Studio