#motte's special interests

[starmotte]

Every so often I think about how Slugterra definitely could have wrapped some of its one-off plots into something way more cohesive and long term, like.

The center of Slugterra, if that's corrupted, slowly corrupting all of Slugterra? The Lightwell, source of all slug energy? The Unbeatable Master? You could tie all those together into one big arc, I think.

The Lightwell, a thing of myth and legend, is at the very center of Slugterra which is heavily guarded by shadow clan. The Unbeatable Master is the only human allowed near it, but she's growing old, and needs an apprentice. She seeks out Eli, trains him for a while as a mentor figure, and then as a show of how much more powerful Blakk's ghouls have become, during a defence of the Lightwell she's killed protecting Eli.

Is this the writer's brain in me going insane again? Absolutely. Maybe I'll write something about this as a canon-adjacent AU idk.

[danceswithsporks]

Hiiii, I'm dipping my toes nervously in the world of asks 🫣😂

I'd like to request "did you just kiss me to shut me up?" With Howzer (or Rex, if you have a preference)

Maybe Reader is rambling about something, getting lost in their thoughts. Maybe even building up some anxiety from overthinking? Or just sort of a special interest rant what ever tickles your fancy more. (Reader thinks they're annoying him)

GN reader if possible :)

Feel free to ignore if it's not up your alley and have a great day 🫶🏼

Motte! Thank you for dropping a request!! It always makes me so happy to se you pop up in my notifications!!

I hope I did your request justice with this! While it’s currently just Rex, I do have plans to add Baja Blast daddy Howzer in later! (I’ll tag ya when that happens)

Took so much for me not to go full fic length with this! It was such a cute idea!

“Did you just kiss me to shut me up?”

You stared at the smoking remains of your crashed starship. Debris had hit the thrusters and knocked you out of the sky. if not for Rex’s expert piloting skills, you’d be dead.

“Fuck, no one knows where we are and the comms are fried.” You chewed your lip nervously. A covert mission with very few knowing your destination and even fewer knowing the exact route you were taking. Those few being you and your captain.

Rex could see the panic beginning to settle into you. “Don't panic. I’m sure we can figure something out. Besides, General Skywalker was supposed to be following a day behind us.”

You quickly turned from the sizzling console in front of you, shock in your eyes. “You told him our route?” Only you two were supposed to know! When Rex shrugged and nodded you felt an anger boil within you. “How could you tell him without telling me? I know you don’t trust me as far as you can throw me but this was my mission. I was in charge! This was my chance to prove myself.”

“I was doing my job as a soldier. Making sure our commanding officer knew our route in case something like this happened.” His arms crossed with a humph before wincing slightly. It seemed he’d injured himself in the crash after all. Golden eyes checked to see if you’d noticed the way he’d grabbed at his shoulder and when he found a worried look on your face l, he knew you had.

“You're injured.” Rushing to the back of the ship, you managed to find and pull out the med pack that Kix had packed for you both. On top of medical supplies, there were also three days of rations within for emergencies.

“I’m fine, Commander.” He watched you carefully as you flitted around the ship looking for emergency supplies. Every time you found something you’d run it over to his feet and drop it before running back to the ship. Each time he tried to offer to help and you’d simply push him back into place. After a few minutes, you finally slowed and dropped the small crate that would house your emergency tent. “Commander, I’m fine.”

“Still, I’d rather take a look at it to be sure. Last thing we need is you being injured.” Until you were back on the Resolute and near a bacta tank all you had were some patches and spray. If a bone was broken or dislocated he’d be screwed. It took you a moment to configure everything so you could successfully carry the two bags and the tent crate. As well as having a free hand to grab firewood as you moved away from the crash site. “Let’s get someplace more secure then I’ll take a look.”

“Commander” his words were stopped as you shot him a glance that said ‘end of questions’ he decided to ask just one more. “At least let me carry something?” Rex held his hand out to you waiting for you to pass something over. When you shook your head and began to walk into the woods around you, he sighed and followed close behind. He tried his best to keep a close eye on the area around the both of you as you trekked through the woods, but your ass in your Jedi armor was just too damn sexy to ignore.

Months, it had been literal months since you joined the Resolute and he’d gotten his first look at you. You were everything he’d dreamed of. Kind, sweet, and caring with a heart far too pure for a war-torn galaxy like yours. You cared for his brothers and himself more than even General Skywalker and Ahsoka did and you always found time to relax in the barracks with all of them and chat or listen to their woes. You’d even given him advice on how to ask out the person he'd been crushing on without even realizing it was you. Rex chewed his lip as you stopped and bent over to pick up some wood. The way your ass looked in those pants was absolutely mesmerizing and he felt filthy just imagining you bent over in front of him naked.

He was such a confusing man. You constantly got feelings of adoration and desire from him whenever you were near one another and while you had been crushing on him since your first day with the 501st, it was hard to gauge where you stood with him. You’d helped him out when he’d asked for dating advice, even if it did kill you inside to know he was crushing on someone else, and you found him always joining you and the others in the barracks when you’d all relax with one another. But he’d never made a move or even a flirting comment to let you know his feelings. For all you knew he simply saw you as a friend or worse, a sibling. It was that thought rushing through your stressed-out mind as you stopped to pick up a few dry twigs for the fire that was suddenly interrupted by the intense feeling of desire coming from the clone. It had to be a mistake, perhaps you were simply reading the emotion wrong? A shudder ran through your body at the thought of you two naked and him holding you ran wild through your mind. How many dreams have you had in the last few months of that very scenario? Rex cleared his throat from behind you, pulling you from your dirty thoughts. “Everything ok?” You turned and stepped back over to him, looking him over for discomfort.

Stars, those eyes of yours were always so warm and welcoming to him. No matter the situation, he knew he could rely on them for comfort and understanding. ��Y-yeah. Spotted a mountain peeking through those bushes, figured we might be able to find a cave or use it as a partial wall for protection.” He motioned in the direction he’d just mentioned, sure enough, the gray of a mountain could be seen through the lush greens and browns of the woods around you.

You balanced everything in your arms into one hand and used the force to move some of the debris and earth out of the way, revealing a small overhang at the base of the mountain. It wasn’t a cave, but it would be enough to build a barrier around and store the heat from your fire. “Nice eyes, Captain.” In both catching the mountain before you passed it and in color. Maker, how you adored the golden color of his eyes. How they reminded you of the warm sun in the early hours of the morning and the comfort of a hot cup of caf with cream. If you weren’t such a tip-yip when it came to flirting with him then you would have told him as much. But you were, so instead you just led the way towards the overhang.

It seemed secure enough and once the two of you set up the tent and a barrier generator, it was perfectly safe. It took you moments to get a fire started and with that settled you turned your attention to Rex. “Alright, armor off.” You’d already shed your robes and sat in your base layers next to the fire. Beside you, the med kit sat open and ready for use and the warmth of the fire beckoned him to join you. “Promise I’ll be gentle.”

Rex swallowed the lump that had been forming in his throat as he carefully reached up to unlatch the pauldron on his left arm, the armor clattered to the dirt ground with a thud before he attempted to unlatch the right side. But the pain in his shoulder was too much and he winced in pain. It was definitely sprained if not dislocated.

“Here, let me help.”

He froze at the gentle sound of your voice as you carefully stepped around the fallen armor. You stared at him with those caring eyes, asking for permission to touch his armor and him. Rex nodded slowly and inhaled as your fingers carefully ran over the pauldron looking for the latch.

You thankfully knew what you were doing thanks to Fives and Echo showing you how the armor worked. It took only a moment for you to find the latch and once you did the armor clattered to the ground at your feet. A few more latches and the chest plate followed suit. Soon he was standing before you with just his lower armor on and his black top. “I’ll need to remove this.” You tugged at his shirt to make it clear what you meant. Rex stared at you for a moment as if lost in his thoughts before nodding and moving his good arm to pull the shirt off. You had every intention of helping him but between the sight of him easily reaching behind his neck with one hand and pulling off the shirt, and the thickness of the air that hung between the two of you, it was impossible to move.

Fuck, he was so much more handsome than you could have ever expected. Sure, you’d seen Fives and the others topless at the swimming arena in the Coruscant barracks, but never Rex. He’d always made himself sparse when it came time to swim. You had no clue why he would be so shy when he was stunning to look at. The muscles that rippled and covered his body were almost intoxicating and the many scars that covered it just made him even more beautiful. It was him clearing his throat that made you realize you were staring. You quickly shifted your eyes to his shoulder in hopes of playing off what had just happened as just general concern, you truly hoped it worked.

Your eyes fell on the already bruising shoulder and you made a worried face. “That doesn’t look good.” You reached down quickly and took his hand, leading him to the fire.

Rex nearly collapsed at the feeling of you touching him and helping with his armor, as soon as you’d tugged on his shirt his knees had felt like jelly. He’d done so well avoiding you seeing the scars that littered his body, worried that you’d find them repulsive. You weren’t like that though and he knew you weren’t like that, but even still he worried. So he’d always find an excuse to avoid swimming with you and the boys, something he regretted every time because Kriff, he really wanted to be as near to you as possible. Rex didn’t hear a single word you said as you pulled him towards the fire, worry taking over your inquisitive features.

A hiss came from the clone captain as you carefully ran your fingers over the injured shoulder. “I’m sorry.” You chewed your lip in worry as you pulled out a portable scanner and ran it over his shoulder slowly. A long sigh left you as you took in the results. “Your shoulder is dislocated.” Turning the device so he could see, you began to think about how to fix this.

“You’ll have to set it then.” He’d tried to say it with as calm a face as possible but he knew the pain could be immense. Looking at you, he found your face filled with shock and worry. “Hey, I know you can do this.”

“It’s going to hurt like hell and Kix didn’t pack any pain reliever of that level.” He’d only packed the basics. “You could potentially black out from the pain alone.” And for you to be the cause of that pain? You hated to even think about it.

“Rather be in pain for a moment than the three-day minimum it’ll take for them to track us.” That’s if the mayday transponder was broadcasting. If they missed you two then it could be even longer. “I trust ya, Commander.” He reached over and squeezed your hand gently while nodding reassuringly to you.

Oh, he was dead serious about you doing this! A lump you hadn’t even realized was in your throat was swallowed as you nodded back. “O-ok.” Kriff you were gonna do this. “I-if you pass out. I’ll never forgive you for leaving me alone here for even a moment.” You stood and repositioned yourself behind him. “Here, lay back.” Grabbing one of your robes, you threw it down so his head wouldn’t be in the dirt. “I need you to lay flat.”

“I won’t leave ya alone. I swear.” He swallowed at the feeling of your hands on his bare shoulder while you guided him down to the ground. “Sounds like ya know what your doin'.” Man, he really hoped you knew what you were doing.

“I’ve read about doing this, but never attempted it myself.” Your eyes slid away from his and looked around for something to bite down on. “Here” you pulled your holster over and discarded the contents unceremoniously before passing it to Rex. “But down on this.” The last thing you needed was his screams of pain drawing any unneeded attention.

“I can’t, not on that. You said your master gave that to you before she died.” He’d very clearly remember that story, like he did with every tale you told them.

He’d remembered that? Oh, your heart fluttered so much. “Yeah. But I can always get a new one. Can’t get a new you.” Before he could remark, you slid the leather into his mouth. “Tell me to stop if it becomes too much.”

The redness creeping across your cheeks was downright heart-stopping. You were flirting with him, weren’t you? Did that mean… his thoughts were ripped from him as you carefully moved his injured arm in small circular motions while keeping his arm leveled with his body, Rex fought the urge to scream as best as he could but it truly felt like you were ripping his arm off.

Tears burned your eyes as you continued to move his arm 90 degrees with his body. The little two-inch circles you were making worked to wiggle the joint back into its socket. You held your breath, waiting for him to tell you to stop but he continued to groan and scream through the pain. No longer were his warm and comforting golden eyes watching you, instead they were squeezed shut as he tried to stay conscious. “A-almost there.” If you did it right then as you lived his arm towards a 120-degree position you’d hear a…

*pop*

“That’s it!” You carefully returned his arm to resting over his stomach as you dove for the medic pack. You could have sworn there was a sling in there.

Rex felt like he was going to pass out and vomit at the same time from the pain. The excitement in your voice as you declared it in place was wonderful to hear down the long tunnel you seemed to suddenly be in. “G-great job, Mesh’la.” Rex groaned slightly as his good arm covered his eyes, the darkness pulling at the corners. “Ya…did..it.”

“Mesh’la?” Echo had told you about these terms of endearment after Jesse had called you cyare. But to hear Rex actually call you that had nearly knocked you out! That had to mean he liked you like you liked him! Turning back to him with the sling in hand, you let out a shriek as you realized he’d passed out. “Rex? Rex!”

-*-

It was dark by the time Rex had come to, his arm now secured in a sling and his head propped on a bundle of your robes. “Commander?” He sat up quickly and looked around for you, finding you close to the fire with your knees pulled up to your chin. When you didn’t look at him he worried that he’d upset you by passing out after saying he wouldn’t. He hadn’t meant to, it seemed with everything that had happened that day his body was just done.

Hearing his voice after you’d finally calmed yourself down was like the sweetest thing ever. But at the same time, it wasn’t, for it meant facing the anger that was inside you at him. He’d assured you he wouldn’t leave you alone and yet he’d passed out for four hours! How could you not be mad? “How are you feeling?” Your voice was void of any emotion as you walked over to him and checked the sling. “Any more pain?”

“No. Just dull.” The way you avoided making eye contact with him stung. He’d essentially promised you he wouldn’t and yet he had, you had every right to be upset with him. Reaching up, he took your hand in his and tried his best to meet your eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Does it feel cold? Hot?” You slid your hand from his and tapped at the hand in the sling. “What about this?” You fought the urge to cry and yell at him bubbling within you.

“Commander.” Rex tried to get your attention once more.

“If it’s cold then you’re losing circulation and I may have pinched something.”

“Commander, please.”

“But if it’s getting hot then there may be an infection starting. But I did give you an antibiotic stem so that shouldn’t be the case.”

Rex sighed as you continued to ramble on, ignoring him. He’d seen you like this one other time when Hardcase had injured himself trying to play a prank on Jesse. You’d become so focused on taking care of him that it had taken them nearly an hour to focus once more. “It feels fine.”

“The bruising has started to diminish a bit and I’m not seeing any swelling so that’s a good sign.” You tried to ignore the way his fingers on his injured hand wrapped around yours. “Oh good, you have movement there,”

“Please, look at me.”

“I went through our rations while you were out. Seems if we take our time we should have enough to last a week.” You motioned across your little campsite to the tent crate that now held those rations. “Tomorrow I can go look for a freshwater source and then maybe we could f-“

Your words were cut off by his lips against yours. Everything seemed to spin and explode at the same time as his lips continued to press and rub against yours. You melted into the kiss while your hand found his cheek and you held him close. This was happening! He was kissing you! Your Captain Rex was kissing you right here and now. It lasted for a mere minute but it felt as though it had been an hour. A whine left you as he pulled away to check on you.

“I’m sorry. But you wouldn’t stop…” Rex was cut off by your hand going up to stop him while your other one hovered by your lips in surprise.

“D-did you kiss me to shut me up?” Was that all it had been? A way to shut you up? Honestly, you’d do it again just for the same outcome. But you’d never tell him that.

“You were spiraling like that time with Hardcase.” His good hand held your cheek gently while his thumb ran across your smooth skin. “I’m sorry for passing out.”

So he’s done it to get you quiet so he could apologize. “Oh. It’s…it’s ok.” It seemed so meaningless to be upset by something he clearly couldn’t control. “I’m just…glad your o…”

“Can I kiss you again?” The words left Rex before he could even think about them.

“Please.” Came out like a needy little whine that made your cheeks flare. “I mean, yes. I-I’d like that.”

“Really?” Rex felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest. You wanted him to kiss you again.

“Oh, Rex. Of course, I do. I’ve wanted you to kiss me for months.” Might as well let the loth cat out of the bag fully. “I've just…never been brave enough to say something.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard you just call me Rex and not Captain.” And oh how he loved the sound of his name on your lips. You admitted how long you’d wanted him to kiss you and with a chuckle, he shook his head. “I’ve been wanting to for months. But I didn’t know how to even begin. That’s…why I asked for your advice.”

Now it all made sense. He’d been talking about you when he mentioned liking someone who lit up his world. “I…light up your world?”

“Stars, Yes. Whenever you smile, or laugh or hells just look at me!” Rex leaned forward and pressed his lips against yours once more, excited to feel you part your lips and allow him in.

His tongue danced with yours and you saw actual stars. He tasted like everything you’d hoped for. So sweet and filled with eager affection. You hummed happily and wrapped your arm around his neck carefully, pulling him close. You chuckled into his lips as so many things became clear now that you knew he had crushed on you.

Were you really laughing right now? Rex pulled away and smiled at you sweetly as he brushed his finger across your cheek.”What's so funny?”

“When I found that pack of Chandriian butter cookies on my bed, that was you, wasn’t it?” He smirked at you and your heart fluttered. “I had a feeling.”

Rex shrugged as he thought back to that day. “You said to give them something they enjoyed. You’ve constantly talked up those cookies. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with them.” He reached over and tilted your chin up toward him. “I hope you enjoyed them.”

“I did. Now that I know who gave them to me, I can thank you properly.” Moving for him, you pressed your lips against his once more and savored the way he smiled into you. His good arm wrapped around your back and held you close. Your head swam with feelings of delight and desire as he rubbed your side gently. “So much I’ll be thanking you for.”

“Then let me thank you first.” When you raised an eyebrow at him, he chuckled. “For saving my arm, my men and myself. Before you joined us, life was surprisingly dull. Even with Skywalker as our General. But you gave us something to look forward to. You always tell the men the sweetest stories and listen to all of their woes. Thank you, Mesh’la, for being so wonderful.” He peppered a few kisses against your lips as he spoke and thanked you.

“Perhaps we’ll be saying thank you to one another until they rescue us.” For you too had so much to thank him for.

Rex smirked at the idea. “Then let’s get started now”. Leaning down he pulled you carefully into another kiss. He’d kiss you every moment of every hour, of every minute until you were saved and so much longer after

[maximotts]

hi mottsy i have a serious (kinda) question? i was trying to figure out which of my favorite ff writers to ask and i feel like u would give me a genuine answer without taking offense.

do u ever feel like… idk… like shameful or anything about how much you love an actress or character? like sometimes i get these bouts of like intense guilt and shame for how much i genuinely enjoy elizabeth olsen content and just seeing her in general is like a huge dopamine boost. do u think it’s normal for me to randomly feel anxious about whether or not im a bad person because i spend so much time indulging in fan fiction (SFW and NSFW) and watching her interviews and just like imagining spending time with her or her characters? do u ever feel that way? am i having a crisis???

anyway feel free to ignore this ask, i already feel marginally better just admitting this, but idk i feel like it would help having an outside perspective. some days i don’t care, some days i feel like a stalker and a creep and a weirdo.

Hi nonnie, sorry this took me a day to get to, but hopefully my response can still be helpful!

Firstly, I’ll just get it out of the way and say I don’t think you’re a stalker or a creep or a weirdo (unless you are in fact stalking Lizzie, but I’m assuming you’re not just based off the tone of this ask haha). In general I feel like there’s a big push to categorize loves and interests that don’t make money or aren’t “cool” as something that should be fixed or stopped and I think that is… very harmful to having a balanced existence

If you’re not hurting anyone or breaking any boundaries, and are still maintaining a healthy sense of self outside of fantasy (i.e. feeding yourself, paying your bills, being safe at home) and reading fanfiction or watching interviews of someone brings you joy, more power to you. Think about how much time (and money) people put on sports, no one’s telling those people to stop making their fantasy lineups every year; they throw parties WEEKLY and scream at their televisions or in stadiums and I’m sure they have just as much -if not more- passion about their sport or favorite player as you have for your favorite characters.

Finding joy in someone’s work can be an absolutely magical experience tbh; Wanda, Natasha, and literally so many other fictional characters from comics and books were child!Motts’ friends when I didn’t have any and so I’ll Always feel soooo much dopamine whenever I read a favorite piece of media or watch the MCU versions of comic characters on screen because they’re special to me and there’s nothing wrong with that!

I obviously don’t know Lizzie personally, but I’m sure as an actress she appreciates the love and support people show for her projects; who doesn’t want to know that they have fans who feel touched by their hard work, you know?

Again, there’s a ton of nuances to this conversation and such, but tldr- please don’t be ashamed of where you find happiness in this sometimes very cruel, bleak world.

As long as you’re not infringing on anyone’s private life and you can still separate fantasy from reality, go off, tinie fruitcake. Read that fanfic, watch that Lizzie content 💖

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant and Catherine Tate pay tribute to Bernard Cribbins after his posthumous appearance in Doctor Who's 60th anniversary special, "Wild Blue Yonder." In the special, Cribbins briefly reprises his role as Wilfred Mott, the grandfather of Donna Noble (Tate) and longtime friend of the Doctor (Tennant). Sadly, Cribbins passed away on July 27, 2022, making his return as Mott his final TV appearance. He first began portraying the character in 2007 alongside Tennant's Doctor, which adds an emotional layer to their 60th anniversary reunion.

While appearing on Doctor Who: Unleashed, Tennant and Tate paid tribute to their late Doctor Who 60th anniversary co-star following the premiere of "Wild Blue Yonder." Tennant describes how "delighted" they were when they learned Cribbins was returning for the special, while Tate explained that she and Tennant had grown up watching Cribbins' works as children. Check out their statements below:

Tennant: We were beyond delighted when we knew that Bernard was going to be able to come back. It means so much to me, personally, and I think to the show as a whole, really, that he was there. That character meant so much to so many people.

Tate: Bernard will always, obviously, hold a very special place in my heart, because he always did, even before I knew him, because David and I kind of grew up with watching Bernard on TV, and he was the voice of the Wombles and loads of stuff that would define our childhood. And so having him play my grandad was amazing.

Bernard Cribbins' Doctor Who Legacy

Cribbins left behind quite a legacy following his decades-long career, in which he appeared in notable works such as The Railway Children and Frenzy. Additionally, as Tennant described, he held a special place in the Doctor Who universe. His experience with the franchise actually began back in 1966 when he starred in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. The film wasn't canon to the Doctor Who TV series, but it was inspired by the show and marked Cribbins' first stint as a companion of the Doctor. Little did he know that over 41 years later, he'd become an official Doctor Who companion.

Cribbins first appeared in Doctor Who as Mott in the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned." He was running a newspaper stand in London and was revealed to be one of the few residents remaining in the city over the holidays despite all the extraterrestrial happenings. The Doctor teleported away then, leaving Mott perplexed. However, that wasn't the end of the story. He returned in Doctor Who season 4, episode 1, "Partners in Crime," where it's revealed he is Donna's grandfather. With his interests in astronomy and alien conspiracy theories, he wholeheartedly supports Donna's desire to travel the world with the Doctor.

Occasionally joining their adventures, Mott fought Daleks, made daring escapes, and later helped save Donna's life by ensuring she wouldn't remember the Doctor. However, he was drawn to the Doctor again in "The End of Time" and became his temporary companion. Ultimately, the Doctor sacrifices his life to save Mott, a decision the Time Lord never regretted. "Wild Blue Yonder" brings Mott's story full circle as it's revealed his faith in the Doctor never wavered. His Doctor Who story ends with his reunion with the Doctor and his hope that the world will be saved again.

Note

Showrunner Russell T Davies has confirmed Mott will be mentioned in the final Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, but he won't appear onscreen as Cribbens only filmed one scene.'

[apothecaryscript]

Episode 4 (Ep.28): Mirrors / 第4話（第28話）『鏡(かがみ/Kagami)』

桜花「ほら見て、猫猫」

Infa “Hora mite, Maomao.”

Yinghua “Take a look, Maomao!”

猫猫「ほ～、すごいですね」

Maomao “Hooo, sugoi-desune.”

Maomao “Wow, this is impressive.”

桜花「でしょ？」

Infa “Desho?”

Yinghua “I know, right?”

猫猫（なるほど。わざわざ呼んだのは、これのためか）

Maomao (Naruhodo. Waza-waza yonda-nowa, koreno tameka.)

Maomao (I see, this is why they bothered to summon me.)

玉葉妃「立派な姿見でしょう？何でできているかわかるかしら」

Gyokuyo-hi “Rippana sugata-mi desho? Nanide dekite-iruka wakaru-kashira.”

Concubine Gyokuyou “It’s a great mirror, isn’t it? Can you tell what it’s made of?”

猫猫「この反射…玻璃(はり)製でしょうか」

Maomao “Kono hansha… hari-sei deshoka.”

Maomao “This reflection… Is it glass?”

玉葉妃「当たりよ」

Gyokuyo-hi “Atari-yo.”

Concubine Gyokuyou “Correct.”

桜花「ほんと、玉葉様が二人いるみたい」

Infa “Honto, Gyokuyo-samaga futari iru-mitai.”

Yinghua “Honestly, it’s like there are two Lady Gyokuyous.”

猫猫（玻璃製の鏡は作るのが難しく、西方からの渡来品しかない。すこぶる高級品だ。うっかり割ってしまったら、首が飛んでも文句は言えない）

Maomao (Hari-sei-no kagamiwa tsukuru-noga muzukashiku, saiho-karano torai-hin-shika nai. Ukkari watte-shimattara, kubiga tondemo monkuwa ienai.)

Maomao (Making mirrors out of glass is difficult. The only way to get them is through trade with the west. Meaning this is extremely expensive. If I broke this by accident, they’d have every right to chop my head off.)

貴園「前にも玻璃製の手鏡はあったけど、桜花が割っちゃったからね」

Guien “Mae-nimo hari-sei-no te-kagami-wa atta-kedo, Infaga wacchatta-karane.”

Guiyuan “We had a glass hand mirror before, but Yinghua broke it.”

桜花「もう、それは言わないでよ！」

Infa “Mo, sorewa iwa-naide-yo!”

Yinghua “Please don’t remind me about that!”

猫猫（玉葉様が大らかな人で良かった…）

Maomao (Gyokuyo-samaga oorakana hitode yokatta…)

Maomao (I’m glad Lady Gyokuyou is an even-tempered person…)

猫猫「はぁ～…」

Maomao “Haaaa…”

桜花「猫猫も興味あるんだ？」

Infa “Maomaomo kyomi arunda?”

Yinghua “Does this interest you, Maomao?”

猫猫「はい。どういう構造になっているのでしょうか。���内で量産できるようになれば、儲けることが…」

Maomao “Hai. Do-iu kozoni natte-iruno-deshoka. Koku-nai-de ryosan dekiru-yoni nareba, mokeru-kotoga…”

Maomao “Yes. I wonder how it works? If we could mass-produce this domestically, we could make a lot of money…”

桜花「うん、そだね」

Infa “Un, sodane.”

Yinghua “Yes, right.”

玉葉妃「この姿見はね、異国の特使からの献上品なの」

Gyokuyo-hi “Kono sugata-mi-wane, ikoku-no tokushi-karano kenjo-hin nano.”

Concubine Gyokuyou “This mirror is a gift from the foreign special envoy.”

猫猫「特使様ですか」（そう言えば、やぶ医者が言ってたな…。大規模なキャラバンが来たのは、異国の特使を迎えるための先行隊だとか）

Maomao “Tokushi-sama desuka.” (So-ieba, Yabu-Ishaga ittetana… Daikibo-na kyarabanga kita-nowa, ikoku-no tokushi’o mukaeru-tameno senko-tai-da-toka.)

Maomao “A special envoy?” (The quack doctor mentioned something like that. The large-scale caravan was an advance party to the special envoy, or something.)

桜花「他の上級妃にも贈っているみたいだけどね」

Infa “Hokano jokyuhi-nimo okutte-iru-mitai dakedo-ne.”

Yinghua “I think they gave one to all of the high-ranking concubines, though.”

紅娘「そういう言い方は��めなさい」

Hon’nyan “So-iu iikatawa yame-nasai.”

Hongniang “Don’t phrase it like that.”

猫猫（玉葉妃を含めた上級妃は4人。特使としても、誰かだけをひいきにはできない。こんな立派な姿見を4枚も持って来るなんて、砂漠を超えるにしても、海を越えるにしても、大変だったろう。妃たちにここまで気を使うとは、この国に大きな商談でも持ち掛けているのかもしれないな…）

Maomao (Gyokuyo-hi’o fukumeta jokyu-hiwa yo-nin. Tokushi-to-shitemo, dareka-dake’o hiiki-niwa deki-nai. Konna rippana sugata-mi’o yon-mai-mo motte-kuru-nante, sabaku’o koeru-ni shitemo, umi’o koeru-ni shitemo, taihen dattaro. Kisaki-tachi-ni koko-made ki’o tsukau-towa, kono kuni-ni ookina shodan-demo mochi-kakete-iruno-kamo shire-naina…)

Maomao (There’s four high-ranking concubines, including Concubine Gyokuyou. A special envoy would have to treat them fairly. Bringing four giant mirrors like this must have been hard, whether it was over the desert or by sea. For them to go through all of that for the concubines, they might be trying to start a big business deal with our nation.)

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

高順「小猫、今よろしいですか？」

Gaoshun “Shaomao, ima yoroshii desuka?”

Gaoshun “Xiaomao, may I have a moment?”

猫猫「高順様。どうなさったのですか？」

Maomao “Gaoshun-sama. Do nasattano-desuka?”

Maomao “Master Gaoshun, what is it?”

高順「少し小猫の意見を聞かせて欲しいことがありまして。紅娘様、場所をお借りしても？」

Gaoshun “Sukoshi Shaomao-no iken’o kikasete-hoshii kotoga ari-mashite. Hon’nyan-sama, basho’o okari-shitemo?”

Gaoshun “There’s something I would like your opinion on. Lady Hongniang, may I borrow this room?”

紅娘「ええ、構いませんが。込み入ったお話なんですか？」

Hon’nyan “Ee, kamai-masenga. Komi-itta ohanashi nan-desuka?”

Hongniang “Yes, that’s fine, but is it a difficult topic?”

高順「うむ…」

Gaoshun “Umu…”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

猫猫（二人きりはまずいと紅娘様も同席してくれたが、高順様が妻子持ちと知ってすっかり興味を失ったらしいな…）

Maomao (Futari-kiriwa mazui-to Hon’nyan-samamo doseki-shite-kureta-ga, Gaoshun-samaga saishi-mochi-to shitte sukkari kyomi’o ushinatta-rashiina…)

Maomao (Lady Hongniang jointed us, saying I shouldn’t be alone with him, but she lost all interest once she found out Gaoshun has a wife and child.)

猫猫「それで、お役に立てるかは分かりませんが、話と言うのは？」

Maomao “Sorede, oyakuni tateru-kawa wakari-masenga, hanashi-to iu-nowa?”

Maomao “So, I don’t know if I can be of any help, but what did you have in mind?”

高順「実は、知人が大層困っておりまして…大変妙な話なのですが…。とある良家に二人の娘がいました。歳が近く、よく似た姉妹は両親に愛されて育ちましたが、年頃になると、過保護とも言えるほどになりまして。一人はもちろんのこと、二人でも外に出ることは許されず、監視役の侍女を付けられ、姉妹は家に閉じこもる日々でした」

Gaoshun “Jitsuwa, chijinga taiso komatte-ori-mashite… Taihen myona hanashi nano-desuga… To-aru ryoke-ni futarino musumega imashita. Toshiga chikaku, yoku nita shimaiwa ryoshin’ni ai-sarete sodachi-mashita-ga, toshi-goroni naruto, kahogo-tomo ieru-hodoni nari-mashite. Hitoriwa mochiron’no koto, futari-demo sotoni deru-kotowa yuru-sarezu, kanshi-yaku-no jijo’o tsuke-rare, shimaiwa ie-ni toji-komoru hibi deshita.”

Gaoshun “Well, an acquaintance of mine is very concerned. It’s a very strange situation, but… A rich family has two daughters. They’re close in age and have similar appearances. The girls were loved deeply by their parents, but when they came of age, their parents became overprotective of them. They were never allowed to leave the house, not even together. A lady-in-waiting was assigned to monitor them, and they spent their days in their house.”

高順「哀れに思った侍女が、時折連れ出すこともありましたが、それが父親に知られてしまい、部屋の外にも下男を監視役に置き、夜は鍵をかけて出られないようにしたそうです。元々内向的な姉妹は、一日中部屋で刺繡をしていましたが、ある時…」

Gaoshun “Awareni omotta jijoga, toki-ori tsure-dasu-kotomo ari-mashitaga, sorega chichi-oya-ni shirarete-shimai, heya-no soto-nimo genan’o kanshi-yaku-ni oki, yoruwa kagi’o kakete derare-nai-yoni shita-sodesu. Moto-moto naiko-tekina shimaiwa, ichi-nichi-ju heyade shishu’o shite-imashita-ga, aru-toki…”

Gaoshun “The lady-in-waiting felt sorry for them and took them out occasionally, but the father found out. He stationed male servants outside the room to watch them, and locked the doors at night so that they couldn’t get out. The daughters were introverts, so they spent all day on their embroidery, but one day…”

妹「父様、妹が…仙人の子を身ごもりました」

Imoto “Tosama, imotoga…sen’nin’no ko’o migomori-mashita.”

Elder sister “Father, my little sister… She is pregnant, carrying the child of a wizard!”

猫猫「それは…」

Maomao “Sorewa…”

Maomao “That’s…”

紅娘「妙な話ですねぇ」

Hon’nyan “Myona hanashi desunee.”

Hongniang “A strange story.”

猫猫「また侍女がこっそり外出させたのでは？」

Maomao “Mata jijoga kossori gaishutsu sasetano-dewa?”

Maomao “Didn’t the lady-in-waiting just sneak them out again?”

高順「いえ。外出させた侍女は、見せしめ的に解雇されました。新しい侍女は、あまり姉妹と接していなかったそうです」

Gaoshun “Ie. Gaishutsu-saseta jijo-wa, miseshime-tekini kaiko-sare-mashita. Atarashii jijowa, amari shimaito sesshite-ina-katta-sodesu.”

Gaoshun “No, the lady-in-waiting had already been fired as a warning to the others. The new lady-in-waiting didn’t interact much with the daughters.”

紅娘「では…不埒(ふらち)な話ですが、監視役の下男と…とか？」

Hon’nyan “Dewa… furachina hanashi-desuga, kanshi-yaku-no genan-to…toka?”

Hongniang “Well…in that case, though it would be improper, what about the servant men?”

高順「それも難しいですね。下男は監視のためでも部屋に近づくことも許されていませんでした」

Gaoshun “Soremo muzukashii desune. Genanwa kanshino tame-demo heyani chikazuku-kotomo yuru-sarete imasen deshita.”

Gaoshun “That would be difficult as well. They weren’t allowed to approach the room, even while monitoring them.”

猫猫「確かに困った話ですが、私の領分ではない気がします。『殿方と通じずに子を身ごもる例はないか』という話なら、分からなくもないですが」

Maomao “Tashikani komatta hanashi desuga, watashi-no ryobun-dewa nai kiga shimasu. ‘Tonogata-to tsujizuni ko’o migomoru reiwa naika’to-iu hanashi-nara, wakara-nakumo nai-desuga.”

Maomao “That is quite a conundrum, but it seems outside my realm of knowledge. For example, if the ask was, ‘Is it possible to become pregnant without seeing a man?’ I could explain it.”

紅娘「そんなことがあるの？」

Hon’nyan “Sonna kotoga aruno?”

Hongniang “Does that ever happen?”

猫猫「実際に子が宿るのではなく、妊娠したように体が錯覚を起こすのです。妓楼でも若い妓女が、『好きな男の子供を身ごもった』と言い出したことがありました」

Maomao “Jissaini koga yadoruno-dewa naku, ninshin shita-yoni karadaga sakkaku’o okosuno-desu. Giro-demo wakai gijoga, ‘sukina otoko-no kodomo’o migomotta’to ii-dashita kotoga ari-mashita.”

Maomao “The body can trick itself into believing it’s pregnant without actually becoming so. There was a case in the brothel where a young courtesan claimed that she was carrying the child of the man she loves.”

紅娘「実際に妊娠したわけではなくて？」

Hon’nyan “Jissaini ninshin shita wake-dewa nakute?”

Hongniang “Without actually becoming pregnant?”

猫猫「はい。それでも月のものが止まったり、胸や腹が張ってきたり、思い込みが体に及ぼす影響は大きいんです。その妹が身ごもったことは確かなんですか？」

Maomao “Hai. Sore-demo tsuki-no monoga tomattari, muneya haraga hatte-kitari, omoi-komiga karadani oyobosu eikyowa ookiin-desu. Sono imotoga migomotta-kotowa tashika nan-desuka?”

Maomao “Exactly. She began missing her periods, and her breasts and stomach grew tender. A strongly held belief can have a powerful effect on the body. Are you sure the younger daughter was pregnant?”

高順「え、ええ…まぁ…そういうことにしておいてください」

Gaoshun “E, ee…maa…so-iu kotoni shite-oite kudasai.”

Gaoshun “Well, yes… Let’s just say she was.”

猫猫（ん？）

Maomao (N?)

高順「問題は、監視を逃れて妹が抜け出すことができたかどうかです」

Gaoshun “Mondaiwa, kanshi’o nogarete imotoga nuke-dasu-kotoga dekitaka-doka desu.”

Gaoshun “The problem is, how was she able to sneak out past the surveillance?”

猫猫「では、姉妹がどのように監視されていたのか分かりますか？」

Maomao “Dewa, shimaiga dono-yoni kanshi-sarete-ita-noka wakari-masuka?”

Maomao “Well, do you know how they were being watched?”

高順「ええ。こちらに見取り図が。姉妹が住んでいたのは北側にある離れで、本宅とは西の渡り廊下で繋がっています」

Gaoshun “Ee. Kochira-ni mitori-zu-ga. Shimaiga sunde-ita-nowa kita-gawani aru hanare-de, hontaku-towa nishino watari-roka-de tsunagatte-imasu.”

Gaoshun “Yes. Here is a diagram. The sisters lived in a separate building on the north side, connected to the main house by a corridor on the west.”

猫猫「厠(かわや)はどちらに？」

Maomao “Kawayawa dochirani?”

Maomao “Where is the washroom?”

高順「離れの中にあります」

Gaoshun “Hanare-no nakani ari-masu.”

Gaoshun “Inside the separate building.”

猫猫「もし妹が抜け出すとしたら…」

Maomao “Moshi imotoga nuke-dasu-to shitara…”

Maomao “If the younger daughter were to escape…”

高順「出入口は西側の廊下にしかありません。あとは東側と南側に窓がありますが、下男が監視していました」

Gaoshun “Deiri-guchiwa nishi-gawano roka-ni-shika ari-masen. Atowa higashi-gawato minami-gawani madoga ari-masuga, genan-ga kanshi-shite-imashita.”

Gaoshun “The only way in or out is the corridor on the west side. There are windows on the east and south sides, but the servant men were watching those.”

猫猫「下男はどの辺りから監視していたのでしょう？」

Maomao “Genanwa dono atari-kara kanshi-shite-itano-desho?”

Maomao “Where were the servants watching the windows from?”

高順「南側の窓は本宅の３階から、東側の窓は１階から監視していたらしいです」

Gaoshun “Minami-gawano madowa hon-takuno sangai-kara, higashi-gawano madowa ikkai-kara kanshi-shite-ita rashii desu.”

Gaoshun “The south window was watched from the third floor of the main house, while the east window was being watched from the first floor.”

猫猫「ふむ…見える範囲はかなり限られますね。室内はほとんど見えないのでは？」

Maomao “Fumu… Mieru han’iwa kanari kagirare-masune. Shitsu-naiwa hotondo mie-naino-dewa?”

Maomao “Hmm… They seem to have a very limited field of vision. Could they see inside the room at all?”

高順「ええ。ただ、姉妹は窓辺で刺繍をしていることが多かったそうで…」

Gaoshun “Ee. Tada, shimaiwa madobe-de shishu’o shite-iru-kotoga ookatta-sode…”

Gaoshun “Not really, but the daughters were often doing needlework by the window.”

紅娘「変わった趣味ですね、刺繍だなんて」

Hon’nyan “Kawatta shumi desune, shishu-da nante.”

Hongniang “A strange hobby, embroidery.”

高順「元は放牧の民だったようで…」

Gaoshun “Motowa hoboku-no tami datta-yode….”

Gaoshun “They came from a pastoral culture.”

猫猫（何だろう…肝心なところはぼかしているような気がする…。東と南、窓があるのは同じ部屋のようだ。寝室は姉妹で別々に用意してある…）

Maomao (Nan-daro… Kanjinna tokorowa bokashite-iru-yona kiga suru… Higashito minami, madoga aru-nowa onaji heyano-yoda. Shinshitsu-wa shimaide betsu-betsu-ni yoi-shite-aru…”

Maomao (Hmm… It sounds like he’s hiding something important. The windows on the south and west seem to be in the same room. The daughters have separate bedrooms for themselves.)

猫猫「この離れ、元は来賓用ですか？」

Maomao “Kono hanare, motowa raihin-yo desuka?”

Maomao “Was this separate building originally for guests?”

高順「よく気が付きましたね」

Gaoshun “Yoku kiga tsuki-mashitane.”

Gaoshun “I’m impressed that you noticed that.”

猫猫「監視は何人いたのですか？」

Maomao “Kanshiwa nan-nin itano-desuka?”

Maomao “How many men were watching?”

高順「二人です。それぞれ持ち場はずっと同じでした」

Gaoshun “Futari desu. Sore-zore mochibawa zutto onaji deshita.”

Gaoshun “Two. They were always stationed in the same spot.”

猫猫（随分と詳細を知っている。そのくせ、全ては語っていないこの感じ…これは本当に『知人』の話なのか？口にしたいような、したくないような…）

Maomao (Zuibunto shosai’o shitte-iru. Sono-kuse, subetewa katatte-inai kono kanji… Korewa hontoni ‘chijin’no hanashi nanoka? Kuchini shitai-yona, shitaku-nai-yona…)

Maomao (He knows the details quite well. Yet, it feels like he’s not telling me everything… Is he really talking about an ‘acquaintance’ of his? Hmm.. I don’t know if I want to bring this up…)

猫猫「う～ん…」

Maomao “Uuun…”

高順「そういえば小猫、壬氏様から言伝(ことづて)で、牛黄が遅れそうなので詫びの品だそうです」

Gaoshun “So-ieba Shaomao, Jinshi-sama-kara kotozute-de, go’o-ga okureso-nanode wabino shina-da-sodesu.”

Gaoshun “By the way, Xiaomao. Master Jinshi sent a message. He wanted to apologize for the delay in delivering the ox bezoar.”

猫猫（牛黄！そう言えばまだもらっていなかった。また頭突きをされては堪(たま)らないと黙っていたが、確かに遅い！）

Maomao (Go’o! So-ieba mada moratte ina-katta. Mata zutsuki’o saretewa tamara-naito damatte-itaga, tashikani osoi!)

Maomao (Hmm? The bezoar! That’s true, he hasn’t handed it over yet. I didn’t want another headbutt, so I kept my mouth shut, but he is indeed late.)

高順「申し訳ありません。急に需要が高まったようで…」

Gaoshun “Moshi-wake ari-masen. Kyuni juyoga taka-matta-yode…”

Gaoshun “I’m sorry. It seems like demand for it suddenly went up.”

猫猫「どうしていきなり？」

Maomao “Doshite ikinari?”

Maomao “Why so suddenly?”

高順「ん…」

Gaoshun “N…”

紅娘「最近、壬氏様の元に貴重な霊薬を贈る者が多いと聞きましたよ。やけに熱心に探していると噂ですから」

Hon’nyan “Saikin, Jinshi-samano motoni kichona rei-yaku’o okuru monoga ooi-to kiki-mashita-yo. Yakeni nesshin-ni sagashite-iruto uwasa desu-kara.”

Hongniang “I’ve heard recently that Master Jinshi has been gifted many rare medicines from all sorts of people. Rumor has it that he’s quite passionately searching for them.”

高順「ま、まぁ、そういうことで…こちらをどうぞ」

Gaoshun “Ma, Maa, so-iu kotode… Kochira’o dozo.”

Gaoshun “W-Well, anyway, please take this.”

猫猫「わぁ～～～～！アハ、アハ、アハ、ハィ～…」

Maomao “Waaaaaaaaaa! Aha, aha, aha, haiii…”

紅娘「何ですか？これ」

Hon’nyan “Nan-desuka? Kore.”

Hongniang “What is this?”

高順「熊胆(ゆうたん)です」

Gaoshun “Yutan-desu.”

Gaoshun “It is a bear gall.”

猫猫「熊の胆嚢を乾かしたもので、苦みがありますが、消化器系の病で重宝される貴重な生薬です！」

Maomao “Kumano tanno’o kawa-kashita monode, nigamiga ari-masuga, shokaki-keino yamaide choho-sareru kichona shoyaku-desu!”

Maomao “It’s a bear’s gallbladder, dried. It’s bitter, but it’s valued for its use in medicines for the digestive system!”

高順「喜んでいただけて何よりです。本当は壬氏様が直接渡したかったようですが……フッ。それで、何か気づいたことはありませんか？」

Gaoshun “Yorokonde itadakete nani-yori desu. Hontowa Jinshi-samaga chokusetsu watashi-takatta-yo-desuga……Fu. Sorede, nanika kizuita-kotowa ari-masenka?”

Gaoshun “I’m glad you like it. I think Master Jinshi wanted to deliver it to you personally. So, did you notice anything?”

猫猫「分かりました。少しお待ちいただけますか？」

Maomao “Wakari-mashita. Sukoshi omachi itadake-masuka?”

Maomao “Yes. Can you wait for a moment?”

猫猫「この木の実が姉妹だとして、いつも座っているのはこの辺りで合っていますか？」

Maomao “Kono kino miga shimai-dato-shite, itsumo suwatte-iru-nowa kono ataride atte-imasuka?”

Maomao “Let’s say that these nuts are two daughters. Are these the spots that they always sit in?”

高順「そうですね」

Gaoshun “So-desune.”

Gaoshun “Yes.”

猫猫「監視は二人。それぞれがいつも同じ場所で見張っていた。そこで、こんなふうに鏡を置いてみたらどうでしょう？」

Maomao “Kanshiwa futari. Sore-zorega itsumo onaji bashode mihatte-ita. Sokode, konna-funi kagami’o oite-mitara do-desho?”

Maomao “Two people watching them, always from the same spot every day. What if… I put a mirror here, like this.”

高順・紅娘「あっ…」

Gaoshun, Hon’nyan “A…”

高順「もう一つ木の実があるように見えます」

Gaoshun “Mo-hitotsu kinomiga aru-yoni mie-masu.

Gaoshun “It does look like another nut is there.”

猫猫「同じように、この東の窓の近くに大きな鏡があったらどうでしょう？監視の位置からだと遠目になるので、多少不自然でも分からないでしょう」

Maomao “Onaji-yoni, kono higashino madono chikakuni ookina kagamiga attara do-desho? Kanshino ichi-kara-dato toomeni naru-node, tasho fushizen-demo wakara-nai-desho.”

Maomao “What if there was a large mirror here, near the east window? It would be a good distance away from the watcher, so it would be hard to tell, even if it looked a bit unnatural.”

高順「つまり、部屋にいたのは一人だけで、もう一人は鏡に映った姿というわけですか？」

Gaoshun “Tsumari, heyani ita-nowa hitori-dakede, mo hitoriwa kagamini utsutta sugata-to-iu wake desuka?”

Gaoshun “So, you’re saying there was only one daughter in the room, and the other was an image in the mirror?”

猫猫「うん、よく似た姉妹なら監視役が見分けるのは難しいかもしれません」

Maomao “Un, yoku nita shimai-nara kanshi-yakuga miwakeru-nowa muzukashii-kamo shire-masen.”

Maomao “If the daughters looked similar, it may have been difficult for the watchers to tell them apart.”

紅娘「でも猫猫、刺繍はどうなの？二人はそれぞれ違うものを刺繍していたのでしょう？」

Hon’nyan “Demo Maomao, shishuwa do-nano? Futariwa sore-zore chigau mono’o shishu-shite-itano-desho?”

Hongniang “But Maomao, what about the needlework? They were working on different things, were they not?”

高順「ええ。動物だと聞いています。確か、鳥とウサギとか…」

Gaoshun “Ee. Dobutsu-dato kiite-imasu. Tashika, torito usagi-toka…”

Gaoshun “Yes, I heard they were stitching animals, such as birds or rabbits.”

猫猫「例えば、こんな絵だとすれば、どうでしょう？」

Maomao “Tatoeba, konna e-dato sureba, do-desho?”

Maomao “Well, as an example… Take an image like this.”

猫猫「この絵を逆さまにすると、笑った顔が怒った顔のように見えませんか？」

Maomao “Kono e’o saka-samani suruto, waratta kaoga okotta kaono-yoni mie-masenka?”

Maomao “When I flip this picture upside down, doesn’t the smile now look like a frown?”

高順・紅娘「あっ」

Gaoshun, Hon’nyan “A.”

紅娘「じゃあ、その刺繍もだまし絵だったってこと？」

Hon’nyan “Jaa, sono shishumo damashi-e dattatte koto?”

Hongniang “So you’re saying the embroidery was part of the trick, too?”

猫猫「鏡に映って左右が逆になったら、別のものに見えるような柄を刺繍していたのかもしれません。一人が南側の窓辺で刺繍している間、もう一人が西側の出入り口から抜け出すのは可能だと思います」

Maomao “Kagamini utsutte sayuga gyakuni nattara, betsuno mononi mieru-yona gara’o shishu shite-itano-kamo shire-masen. Hitoriga minami-gawano madobede shishu shite-iru aida, mo-hitoriga nishi-gawano deiri-guchi-kara nuke-dasu-nowa kano-dato omoi-masu.”

Maomao “Maybe they were working on embroidery that looked like a different image when seen through a mirror. If so, one could be actually doing needlework by the southern window, while the other escapes out of the exit on the west.”

高順「なるほど」

Gaoshun “Naruhodo.”

Gaoshun “I see.”

紅娘「確かにその方法なら、抜け出して逢引きもできますね」

Hon’nyan “Tashikani sono hoho-nara, nuke-dashite aibiki-mo deki-masune.”

Hongniang “I guess using that method, it would be possible to sneak out and meet someone.”

猫猫（異国の特使が持ってきた姿見…あんなに美しく映るのだから、遠目に見れば十分間違えてしまうだろう…。昔、親父が留学していた西方の国では、刺繍は上流階級の子女のたしなみだったそうだ。高順様は、良家の子女が家を抜け出し、子をはらんだ…と言ったが、どこまで本当なのか疑わしい。実際にはらんだのは、もっと違う秘密なのかもしれない）

Maomao (Ikokuno tokushiga motte-kita sugata-mi… Annani utsuku-shiku utsuruno-dakara, toomeni mireba jubun machigaete-shimau-daro… Mukashi, oyajiga ryugaku shite-ita saihono kuni-dewa, shishuwa joryu-kaikyuno shijono tashinami datta-soda. Gaoshun-samawa, ryokeno shijoga ie’o nuke-dashi, ko’o haranda…to ittaga, doko-made honto-nanoka utagawashii. Jissaini haranda-nowa, motto chigau himitsu nano-kamo shire-nai.)

Maomao (The large mirror that the foreign envoys brought was so beautiful. From a distance, it would be hard to tell a reflection from reality. A long time ago, when my dad went to study abroad in the west, he told me that needlework was common among high-class daughters. Master Gaoshun said a girl from a rich family snuck out of the house to get pregnant, but I don’t know how accurate that story is. Maybe she was carrying a bigger secret instead of a child.)

猫猫（密偵の疑いがある者を、客人として扱うこともあるだろう。されど、それを追及するような深入りはしない…それよりも…ウフ～…）

Maomao (Mitteino utagaiga aru mono’o, kyaku-jin-to-shite atsukau kotomo aru-daro. Saredo, sore’o tsuikyu suru-yona fuka-iri-wa shinai… Sore-yorimo…ufuuu…)

Maomao (I suppose sometimes, one would need to accept someone who is suspected of being a spy as a guest. But I’m not going to question that and get myself too involved. More importantly…)

猫猫「ハァ～！この熊胆で何を作ろうかなぁ～！アハ、アハハ！」

Maomao “Haaaa! Kono yutande nani’o tsukuro-kanaaaa! Aha, ahaha!”

Maomao “What should I make with this bear gall?!”

紅娘「ハァ…」

Hon’nyan “Haa…”

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――���

高順「真珠の涙を流す絶世の美女…ですか」

Gaoshun “Shinjuno namida’o nagasu zessei-no bijo…desuka.”

Gaoshun “An otherworldly beauty that sheds pearls as tears?”

壬氏「ああ…接待対応の高官に泣き付かれてな」

Jinshi “Aa…Settai-taio’no kokan’ni naki-tsukarete-na.”

Jinshi “Yeah, the high-ranking official in charge of the welcoming party came begging for help.”

高順「壬氏様。わざわざお仕事を増やさなくても…」

Gaoshun “Jinshi-sama. Waza-waza oshigoto’o fuyasa-naku-temo…”

Gaoshun “Master Jinshi, you don’t have to accept any more work…”

壬氏「分かっている。…姿見と言い、特使たちは一体何を考えているんだ…」

Jinshi “Wakatte-iru. …Sugata-mi-to-ii, tokushi-tachiwa ittai nani’o kangaete-irunda…”

Jinshi “I know. It’s not just the mirrors. What are the envoys thinking?”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

壬氏「薬屋、真珠の涙を流す絶世の美女の話を聞いたことはないか？」

Jinshi “Kusuriya, shinjuno namida’o nagasu zessei-no bijono hanashi’o kiita-kotowa naika?”

Jinshi “Apothecary, have you ever heard a story of an otherworldly beauty who sheds pearls as tears?”

猫猫「ん…」

Maomao “N…”

壬氏「ん？何だ？」

Jinshi “N? Nanda?”

Jinshi “Huh? What is it?”

猫猫（絶世の美人なら目の前にいますよ…と言いたいが…）

Maomao (Zessei-no bijin-nara meno maeni imasuyo…to iitaiga…)

Maomao (I’d love to say, ‘There’s an otherworldly beauty in front of me right here…’)

玉葉妃「ウフフ…」

Gyokuyo-hi “Ufufu…”

猫猫「真珠の涙とは、どういうことでしょう？」

Maomao “Shinjuno namida-towa, do-iu koto desho?”

Maomao “What do you mean by ‘peals as tears’?”

壬氏「詳しいことは知らないが…月の精のような美女で、彼女が踊れば祝福するように光が舞い、その涙は真珠となり、こぼれ落ちたとか…。どうやら花街の妓女だったらしいのだが…」

Jinshi “Kuwashii kotowa shira-naiga… Tsukino sei-no-yona bijode, kanojoga odoreba shukufuku-suru-yoni hikariga mai, sono namidawa shinjuto nari, kobore-ochita-toka… Do-yara hana-machi-no gijo-datta rashiino-daga…”

Jinshi “I don’t know the details, but… She was a beautiful woman, like a moon fairy. When she danced, lights danced with her as if blessing her. When she cried, the tears turned into pearls as they fell down. I think she was a courtesan from the pleasure district, but…”

猫猫「月の精ですか。何でまた急に？」

Maomao “Tsuki-no sei desuka. Nande mata kyuni?”

Maomao “A moon fairy? Where did this come from?”

壬氏「今、来ている特使の、たっての願いでな」

Jinshi “Ima, kite-iru tokushi-no, tatteno negai-dena.”

Jinshi “It’s a serious request from the special envoy with us now.”

猫猫「特使と言うと、西方の？」

Maomao “Tokushi-to-iuto, saiho-no?”

Maomao “The special envoy? From the west?”

壬氏「ああ。幼い頃、特使は祖父から、月の精の話を何度も聞かされていたらしい。それで『会ってみたいので捜して欲しい』と言われたのだ」

Jinshi “Aa. Osanai koro, tokushiwa sofu-kara, tsuki-no sei-no hanashi’o nandomo kika-sarete-ita rashii. Sorede ‘atte-mitai-node sagashite-hoshii’to iwareta-noda.”

Jinshi “Yes. When they were young, the envoy’s grandfather told the story of the moon fairy, over and over again. So, now they’re asking me to find her, so that they can meet her.”

猫猫「祖父…ということは、かなり昔のことですね」

Maomao “Sofu…to iu-kotowa, kanari mukashi-no koto desune.”

Maomao “Their grandfather? That must mean this is a pretty old story.”

壬氏「ああ。無理難題だが大事な外交の相手だ。できる限り応えたい。何か噂だけでも聞いたことはないか？」

Jinshi “Aa. Muri-nandai-daga daijina gaiko-no aite-da. Dekiru-kagiri kotae-tai. Nanika uwasa-dake-demo kiita-kotowa naika?”

Jinshi “Yes. It’s difficult, but they’re important diplomatic partners. I’d like to respond to the best of my ability. Does this remind you of anything, even a rumor?”

猫猫（50年前、花街の踊り子、月の精…）「あっ」

Maomao (Goju-nen-mae, hana-machi-no odori-ko, tsuki-no sei…) “A.”

Maomao (Fifty years ago… A dancer from the pleasure district… Moon fairy…) “Oh!”

壬氏「もちろん、何十年前の話だから、今生きているかどうか分からないが…」

Jinshi “Mochiron, nanju-nen-maeno hanashi-dakara, ima ikite-iruka-doka wakara-naiga…”

Jinshi “This is obviously decades ago, so who knows if she’s still alive…”

猫猫「生きてますよ」

Maomao “Ikite-masuyo.”

Maomao “She’s very much alive.”

壬氏「えっ、本当か！？」

Jinshi “E, hontoka!?”

Jinshi “Really?!”

猫猫「本当も何も、壬氏様は会ったこともあるじゃないですか。花街で」

Maomao “Honto-mo nani-mo, Jinshi-samawa atta-kotomo aruja nai-desuka. Hana-machide.”

Maomao “Really, and in fact, you’ve met her before in the pleasure district.”

壬氏「私が？」

Jinshi “Watashiga?”

Jinshi “I have?”

猫猫「ええ」

Maomao “Ee.”

Maomao “Yes.”

壬氏「それらしい人物に会った記憶はないが…」

Jinshi “Sore-rashii jinbutsu-ni atta kiokuwa naiga…”

Jinshi “I don’t remember meeting anyone matching the description…”

猫猫「すぐに思い当たらなくても、無理ないと思います」

Maomao “Suguni omoi-atara-naku-temo, muri-naito omoi-masu.”

Maomao “It’s no surprise that you can’t think of her immediately.”

壬氏「まさか…」

Jinshi “Masaka…”

Jinshi “Could it be?”

猫猫「そのまさかです。やり手婆ですよ、緑青館の」

Maomao “Sono masaka desu. Yarite-Babaa desuyo, Rokushokan-no.”

Maomao “Indeed, it’s the old lady of the Verdigris House.”

壬氏「あぁ…」

Jinshi “Aa…”

高順「おぉ…」

Gaoshun “Oo…”

玉葉妃「まぁ…どんな方なの？」

Gyokuyo-hi “Maa… Donna kata nano?”

Concubine Gyokuyou “Oh, what is she like?”

壬氏「ん…」

Jinshi “N…”

高順「んん…」

Gaoshun “Nn…”

猫猫「金子(きんす)さえ積めばすぐ参じると思いますけど、どうしますか？」

Maomao “Kinsu-sae tsumeba sugu sanjiru-to omoi-masu-kedo, do-shimasuka?”

Maomao “She’ll come any time, as long as you can pay. What do you think?”

壬氏「え…あ、いや、それは…」

Jinshi “E…a, iya, sorewa…”

Jinshi “W-Well, that’s…”

猫猫「でも、先方も50年前の人物だと分かってるのでしょう？代わりの美女ではダメなのですか？」

Maomao “Demo, senpo-mo goju-nen-maeno jinbutsu-dato wakatteruno-desho? Kawarino bijo-dewa dame nano-desuka?”

Maomao “The envoy knows the person is from fifty years ago. Couldn’t you just find a different beautiful woman?”

壬氏「それが…もう美女を集めての宴席は設けたんだ。月の精ほどではなくても、粒ぞろいを集めたつもりだったが……相手は満足した様子はなく、むしろ鼻で笑うようだったと…」

Jinshi “Sorega…mo bijo’o atsumeteno ensekiwa moketanda. Tsuki-no sei hodo-dewa naku-temo, tsubu-zoroi’o atsumeta tsumori-dattaga……Aitewa manzoku-shita yosuwa naku, mushiro hanade warau-yodatta-to…”

Jinshi “Well, we already hosted a welcoming party with beautiful women. They might not have been moon fairies, but I still think we brought in some top-level beauties. They didn’t seem to be satisfied. In fact, they seemed to laugh it off.”

猫猫（どんなヤツだよ…）「失礼ですが、その美女たちに夜のお相手の方は…」

Maomao (Donna yatsu dayo…) “Shitsurei-desuga, sono bijo-tachini yoruno oaiteno-howa…”

Maomao (Who is this guy?) “I’m sorry, but did any of these top-level beauties provide any overnight services―”

紅娘「猫猫！」

Hon’nyan “Maomao!”

Hongniang “Maomao!”

壬氏「いや、その手は無理だった。特使は女性だからな」

Jinshi “Iya, sono tewa muri datta. Tokushiwa josei dakara-na.”

Jinshi “No, we couldn’t do that. The envoy is female.”

猫猫（あぁ…それで壬氏様に話が回って来たのか。誰もが見とれる容姿を持ち、性別は一応、男。女性を夢中にさせるのに十分な逸材である。しかし面倒も起こり得る。色仕掛けを本気にされ夜伽を求められても、使えるものがない。もちろん、女の身でありながら特使という立場にあれば、そういう浅はかな真似はしないだろうが、避けておくに越したことはない…）

Maomao (Aa… Sorede Jinshi-samani hanashiga mawatte-kita-noka. Daremoga mitoreru yoshi’o mochi, seibetsuwa ichio, otoko. Josei’o muchuni saseru-noni jubunna itsuzai-de aru. Shikashi mendomo okori-uru. Iro-jikake’o honkini sare yotogi’o motome-rare-temo, tsukaeru monoga nai. Mochiron, onna’no mide ari-nagara tokushi-to-iu tachibani areba, so-iu asahakana manewa shinai-daroga, sakete-okuni koshita kotowa nai…)

Maomao (Ah, so that’s why they came to Master Jinshi for help. He has beauty that would impress anyone, and is technically male. He does have what it takes to make a woman go head over heels. But he could cause trouble, too. What if she took his seduction seriously and demanded he stay overnight? He can’t deliver. Of course, being a special envoy as a woman must have taught her to refrain from such careless acts, but it’s a risk worth avoiding.)

猫猫「その特使と言うのは、どれほど重要な相手なのでしょうか？」

Maomao “Sono tokushi-to iu-nowa, dore-hodo juyona aite nano-deshoka?”

Maomao “How important is this envoy?”

壬氏「西と北の交易拠点を押さえている…と言えば、分かるか？今回、キャラバンの規模が大きかったのも���お互いに新たな交易の話を進めたいからだ」

Jinshi “Nishito kitano koeki-kyoten’o osaete-iru…to ieba, wakaruka? Konkai, kyaraban-no kiboga ooki-katta-nomo, otagaini aratana koekino hanashi’o susume-tai-karada.”

Jinshi “Let’s just say they completely control the western and northern trade points. The latest caravan was so large because both nations want to advance talks of new trades.”

猫猫「なるほど…。遠方の国では、他国との婚姻が進み、そこら中に美男美女がいると聞いたことがあります」

Maomao “Naruhodo… Enpono kuni-dewa, takoku-tono kon’inga susumi, sokora-juni binan-bijoga iruto kiita-kotoga ari-masu.”

Maomao “I see. I hear in distant lands, marriages take place across international lines, causing beautiful men and women to become quite commonplace.”

猫猫（そんな国の人間に、月の精とまで言わせたとは…）

Maomao (Sonna kuni-no ningen’ni, tsuki-no sei-to-made iwaseta-towa…)

Maomao (For someone from such a nation to call someone a moon fairy…)

猫猫「香に幻覚剤でも混ぜたのでしょうか？」

Maomao “Ko-ni genkaku-zai-demo mazetano-deshoka?”

Maomao “Did she put hallucinogens in the incense or something?”

壬氏「そんなことをするのか？」

Jinshi “Sonna koto’o suru-noka?”

Jinshi “Do people do that?”

猫猫「しませんけど、一番手っ取り早いかと」

Maomao “Shimasen-kedo, ichi-ban tettori-bayai-kato.”

Maomao “Not usually, but it would be the quickest way.”

壬氏「そんなことをすれば、外交問題になる…。うぅ、この際、何でもいい…何か当時の情報はないのか？」

Jinshi “Sonna koto’o sureba, gaiko-mondai-ni naru… Uu, kono-sai, nan-demo ii…Nanika toji-no johowa nai-noka?”

Jinshi “That would cause a diplomatic disaster. I’m grasping at straws here. Is there any information from back then?”

猫猫（よほど困っているな…。では、藁にもすがるつもりで…）

Maomao (Yohodo komatte-iruna… Dewa, wara-nimo sugaru tsumori-de…)

Maomao (He really is distraught. Well, let’s bring in the straw to grasp.)

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

猫猫「わざわざ来てもらって悪いね」

Maomao “Waza-waza kite-moratte waruine.”

Maomao “Thanks for coming all the way out here.”

やり手婆「何だか妙な話を持ってきたね。フン、随分シケたとこだねぇ。茶の一杯も出ないのかい？」

Yarite-Babaa “Nandaka myona hanashi’o motte-kitane. Fun, zuibun shiketa toko-danee. Chano ippai-mo denaino-kai?”

Madam “This is a strange ask. What a boring place. Not even a cup of tea?”

猫猫「ここ、面会室みたいなもんだから。婆さん昔、異国の特使の接待をしたんだって？」

Maomao “Koko, menkai-shitsu mitaina mon-dakara. Baasan mukashi, ikoku-no tokushi-no settai’o shitan-datte?”

Maomao “This is just a visitation room, of sorts. Old lady, did you welcome a foreign envoy in the past?”

やり手婆「ああ、そうだよ。50年以上前だったかねぇ。前の前の主上様の時代さ。元は遺跡を利用して造られた街があって、物見遊山の人がたくさん来てたんだ。人の往来の多い所だったから、急に都になると決まって一悶着あったらしいけどね。まだ遷都したてで立派な城もなくて、接待する場所がなかったんだよ。お上も随分悩んで、結局残っていた遺跡を使うことになった。元は何かの祭儀場で、果樹園の近くに綺麗な池と建物があってねぇ」

Yarite-Babaa “Aa, so-dayo. Goju-nen-ijo mae datta-kanee. Maeno maeno shujo-sama-no jidai-sa. Motowa iseki’o riyo-shite tsuku-rareta machiga atte, monomi-yusan’no hitoga takusan kitetanda. Hito-no orai-no ooi tokoro datta-kara, kyuni miyako-ni naruto kimatte hito-monchaku atta rashii-kedone. Mada sento shitatede rippana shiromo nakute, settai-suru bashoga nakattan-dayo. Okamimo zuibun nayande, kekkyoku nokotte-ita iseki’o tsukau kotoni natta. Motowa nanika-no saigijo-de, kajuen’no chikakuni kireina iketo tatemonoga atte-nee.”

Madam “Yes, I did. It must have been over 50 years ago. This was back in the age of the emperor before the previous one. The city was originally a town built on an ancient ruin, and we had a bunch of tourists visiting. When they suddenly decided to make this popular spot the capital, there was a bit of turmoil. Anyway, the capital was still new, so we didn’t have a great castle and nowhere to welcome guests. The higher-ups couldn’t think of anything, so they used a remaining ruin. It used to be some kind of ceremonial site. It had a pretty pond and buildings next to an orchard.”

猫猫（それって…、先日訪れた後宮北側には、荒れた果樹園があった。当時の宴の会場が今の後宮の中にあっても、おかしくはない…）

Maomao (Sorette…, sen-jitsu otozureta kokyu kita-gawa-niwa, areta kajuenga atta. Toji-no utage-no kaijoga ima-no kokyu-no nakani attemo, okashikuwa nai…)

Maomao (Is that… There was a ruined orchard on the north side of the rear palace that I visited the other day. It’s not out of the question that the party venue might now be part of the rear palace.)

やり手婆「そこを舞台にした踊り手の主役として、花街から選ばれたのが、あたしだったのさ」

Yarite-Babaa “Soko’o butaini shita odorite-no shuyaku-to-shite, hana-machi-kara era-bareta-noga atashi datta-nosa.”

Madam “I was selected as the main dancer in the performance using that ruin as a stage.”

猫猫「選ばれた理由は？」

Maomao “Era-bareta riyuwa?”

Maomao “Why you?”

やり手婆「そりゃ、当時の花街で最上級の妓女だったからだよ。あたしを主役に、10数人が踊ったよ」

Yarite-Babaa “Sorya, toji-no hana-machi-de saijo-kyu-no gijo datta-kara dayo. Atashi’o shuyaku-ni, ju-su-ninga odottayo.”

Madam “Well, I was the highest-class courtesan in the whole pleasure district back then. I was the main dancer, and about a dozen others danced with me.”

猫猫（今の姿は、花と言うより枯れ枝だけど…）

Maomao (Ima-no sugatawa, hana-to iu-yori kare-eda dakedo…)

Maomao (She looks like a dead twig now, but…)

やり手婆「しかしまぁ、一番の理由は体格だろうね」

Yarite-Babaa “Shikashi-maa, ichiban’no riyuwa tai-kaku darone.”

Madam “That said, I think the biggest reason was my build.”

猫猫「え？」

Maomao “E?”

やり手婆「あたしは背も高くて、体にメリハリもあったから」

Yarite-Babaa “Atashiwa semo takakute, karadani meri-hari-mo atta-kara.”

Madam “I was very tall, and had a very curvy body.”

猫猫（確かに、主役として舞台に立ったら、体は大きい方がいいだろう）

Maomao (Tashikani, shuyaku-to-shite butaini tattara, karadawa ookii-hoga ii-daro.)

Maomao (It does make sense to assign someone with a bigger body as the main dancer.)

やり手婆「ただねぇ…即興の場だったから、準備にはかなり手間取ったんだよ。月の満ち欠けまで計算して、宴席から見える景色を良くするのに障害物をどけてさ。果樹園が近いから虫も多くて、事前に葉に付いた幼虫を一匹残らず駆除して。まぁ結局かがり火の明かりで、虫は寄ってきたんだけどね。そこまで用意したのに、当日あたしの衣装にイタズラするヤツらがいたのさ。虫の死骸をこすり付けられてね。でも、あたしはそんなヤワじゃない。布帛(ひれ)で隠して、うまくやり遂げたさ。結果は大絶賛。イタズラしたヤツは悔しがってたよ」

Yarite-Babaa “Tada-nee…sokkyo-no ba-datta-kara, junbi-niwa kanari tema-dottan-dayo. Tsuki-no michi-kake-made keisan-shite, enseki-kara mieru keshiki’o yoku-suru-noni shogai-butsu’o dokete-sa. Kajuenga chikai-kara mushimo ookute, jizen’ni hani tsuita yochu’o ippiki nokorazu kujo-shite. Maa kekkyoku kagaribi-no akaride, mushiwa yotte-kitan-dakedone. Soko-made yoi-shita-noni, tojitsu atashi-no isho-ni itazura-suru yatsuraga ita-nosa. Mushi-no shigai’o kosuri-tsuke-rarete-ne. Demo, atashiwa sonna yawaja nai. Hirede kakushite, umaku yari-togeta-sa. Kekkawa dai-zessan. Itazura-shita yatsuwa kuyashi-gatteta-yo.”

Madam “That said… A lot of the event was improvised, so we had difficulty preparing. We had to plan everything, like the phases of the moon, and removed obstacles to give the guests a better view. The nearby orchard meant lots of insects, so we went in and picked out every single larva from the leaves. We did end up getting insects around the torches, though. Even after all that work, there were idiots who tampered with my costume that night. They rubbed insect carcasses on it. But I was too tough for them. I used my outfit skillfully to hide it. The audience ate it up, and the idiots seemed so angry.”

猫猫「その話、何度も聞いた…もっと違うことない？痛っ！」

Maomao “Sono hanashi, nandomo kiita… Motto chigau koto nai? Ita!”

Maomao “I’ve heard that story so many times. Got anything else?”

やり手婆「可愛くない子だね」

Yarite-Babaa “Kawaiku-nai ko dane.”

Madam “Have some respect!”

猫猫「んん…痛っ」

Maomao “Nn…Ita.”

やり手婆「ふん！」

Yarite-Babaa “Fun!”

猫猫「ん？」

Maomao “N?”

猫猫（綺麗な絵だ…初めて見た。やり手婆も大切にしていたのだろう…。この幻想的な美女が…金の亡者になるなんて…）

Maomao (Kireina e-da… Hajimete mita. Yarite-Babaamo taisetsuni shite-itano-daro… Kono genso-tekina bijoga…kane-no moja-ni naru-nante…)

Maomao (What a beautiful picture. I haven’t seen this before. It must be precious to the old granny as well. Who would’ve known this mesmerizing beauty would become a penny-pincher…)

やり手婆「これは、その特使というのが、わざわざ国に帰って絵描きに描かせたそうだよ。『月女神』だなんて言ってね」

Yarite-Babaa “Korewa, sono tokushi-to iu-noga, waza-waza kuni-ni kaette ekaki-ni kakaseta-sodayo. ‘tsuki-megami’ da-nante itte-ne.”

Madam “This painting was commissioned by the envoy after he returned home. Saying he saw a ‘moon goddess’ or something.”

猫猫「あぁ、なるほど。この絵も美化されているわけか」

Maomao “Aa, naruhodo. Kono e-mo bika-sarete-iru-wakeka.”

Maomao “Ah, I see. This picture is beautified as well.”

やり手婆「何か言ったかい？」

Yarite-Babaa “Nanika itta-kai?”

Madam “What did you say?”

猫猫「何でもないよ」

Maomao “Nandemo naiyo.”

Maomao “Nothing.”

やり手婆「フンッ。当人は二度とこの地を踏むことはなかったけど、キャラバンに預けて届けてくれたのさ。フ～」

Yarite-Babaa “Fun. Toninwa nidoto kono chi’o fumu-kotowa nakatta-kedo, kyaraban’ni azukete todokete-kureta-nosa. Fuuu.”

Madam “So, the envoy never set foot in our land again, but he sent this to me through the caravan.”

猫猫「でも、婆さんは普通にいつも通り仕事しただけだろ？何でそんなに気に入られてたの？」

Maomao “Demo, Baasanwa futsu-ni itsumo-doori shigoto-shita-dake-daro? Nande sonna’ni kini irare-teta-no?”

Maomao “But granny, you were just doing your job as usual, right? Why did he like you so much?”

やり手婆「そんなの私も知らないよ！フ～」

Yarite-Babaa “Sonna’no watashimo shira-nai-yo! Fuuu.”

Madam “How should I know?”

猫猫（やり手婆は、物事を客観視できる人間だ。誇張はないだろう。しかし…いくら当時の婆さんが美人だったとしても、『女神』とまで言わしめたのは何だったのか…）

Maomao (Yarite-Babaawa, mono-goto’o kyakkan-shi dekiru ningen-da. Kochowa nai-daro. Shikashi…ikura toji-no baasanga bijin dattato shitemo, ‘megami’to-made iwa-shimeta-nowa nan-datta-noka…)

Maomao (The old lady can see things objectively. She probably isn’t exaggerating. But… Even if the old lady was beautiful back then, what caused them to call her a goddess?)

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

壬氏「う～む…分からんな…」

Jinshi “Uuumu…Wakaranna…”

Jinshi “Hmm, I don’t know.”

高順「とりあえず、この絵によく似た人物を捜しますか？」

Gaoshun “Tori-aezu, kono e-ni yoku nita jinbutsu’o sagashi-masuka?”

Gaoshun “Should we find someone who looks like the person in the picture?”

壬氏「そのくらいしか思いつかんな」

Jinshi “Sono kurai-shika omoi-tsukan-na.”

Jinshi “That’s all I can think of.”

猫猫（正直、この絵に似た大柄な美女を見つけるのは難しいだろう）

Maomao (Shojiki, kono eni nita oogarana bijo’o mitsukeru-nowa muzukashii-daro.)

Maomao (Honestly, finding a tall woman who looks like this would be difficult.)

猫猫「いっそ顔は似てなくても、大柄な女を見つけてみてはどうでしょう？今では随分縮んでしまいましたが、当時は身長が１７５cmあったそうです」

Maomao “Isso kaowa nite-naku-temo, oogarana onna’o mitsukete-mitewa do-desho? Ima-dewa zuibun chijinde shimai-mashitaga, tojiwa shinchoga hyaku-nanaju-go-senchi atta-sodesu.”

Maomao “Why don’t we just look for a tall woman, not necessarily one that looks like this? She’s shrunk quite a bit now, but she said she was 175 centimeters tall back then.”

壬氏「随分と大柄だな」

Jinshi “Zuibunto oogara dana.”

Jinshi “That is quite tall.”

猫猫「ええ。舞を得意としていたので、手足の長い方がよく映えた、とのことです」

Maomao “Ee. Mai’o tokui-to shite-ita-node, te-ashi-no nagai-hoga yoku haeta, tono koto desu.”

Maomao “Yes. She was a skilled dancer, and her long limbs helped make her dances look even better.”

壬氏「しかし、彼女たちに匹敵する美女で大柄となると、難度が高いぞ」

Jinshi “Shikashi, kanojo-tachini hitteki-suru bijode oogara-to naruto, nandoga takaizo.”

Jinshi “But finding a tall woman on par with her beauty would be difficult.”

高順「特使様達も、それくらいの背丈ですし…あまり小さいと、童(わらべ)のように見えるのでは」

Gaoshun “Tokushi-sama-tachimo, sore-kuraino setake desushi… Amari chiisai-to, warabe-no-yoni mieruno-dewa.”

Gaoshun “The envoys are about that tall. If we find someone too small, they might appear like children.”

壬氏「ん……」

Jinshi “N……”

猫猫「特使様『たち』？一人ではないのですか？」

Maomao “Tokushi-sama-tachi? Hitori-dewa naino-desuka?”

Maomao “The ‘envoys’? There are more than one?”

高順「ええ。同じ祖父を持つ従姉妹(いとこ)だそうで」

Gaoshun “Ee. Onaji sofu’o motsu itoko-da-sode.”

Gaoshun “Yes. They are cousins with the same grandfather.”

猫猫（さっきの物言いだと、特使たちもかなりの美人なのだろう。となればやはり、背丈が１７５cmを超える、美女を黙らせるほどの美貌の持ち主を…）

Maomao (Sakkino monoii-dato, tokushi-tachimo kanarino bijin nano-daro. To-nareba yahari, setakega hyaku-nanaju-go-senchi’o koeru, bijo’o dama-raseru-hodono bibo-no mochi-nushi’o…)

Maomao (From the way they described it, the envoys must be quite pretty as well. So we have to find someone who’s more than 175 centimeters tall, whose beauty would impress another beauty…)

猫猫「あっ」

Maomao “A.”

Maomao “Oh.”

壬氏・高順「ん？」

Jinshi, Gaoshun “N?”

猫猫「見つけました。大変適役な人物。背丈が１７５cmを超える美人でしょう？」

Maomao “Mitsuke-mashita. Taihen teki-yaku-na jinbutsu. Setakega hyaku-nanaju-go-senchi’o koeru bijin desho?”

Maomao “I found someone. A very suitable candidate. A beautiful person taller than 175 centimeters, right?”

高順「あっ」

Gaoshun “A.”

Gaoshun “Oh!”

壬氏「…ん？何が言いたい…」

Jinshi “…N? Naniga iitai…”

Jinshi “Huh? What are you trying to say?”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

子翠「ん？…わぁ～！」

Shisui “N? …Waaaa!”

Shisui “Wow!”

(Continue to Episode 5/Ep.29)

[wonder-worker]

Katherine of York:

[Henry VIII's] fondness for his aunt was once again demonstrated when in 1512 he granted Katherine all the Courtenay estates in Devon for the term of her life, and to be passed to her children upon her death. This act gave Katherine her much needed security, although did she have to make a sacrifice to pay for it? For shortly after William’s death, Katherine took the following vow of chastity:

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I, Katherine Courtneye, Countess of Devonshire, widow, and not wedded, ne unto any man assured, promise and make a vow to God, and to our Lady, and to all the Company of Heaven, in the presence of you, worshipful Father in God, Richard, Bishop of London, for to be chaste of my body, and truly and devoutly shall keep me chaste, for this time forward, as long as my life lasteth, after the rule of St Paul. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti

The romantic perspective of course is that she took the vow because she deeply loved her husband and had come to a decision that she did not want to marry anyone else. This may well have been the case. But there is also a hypothesis that perhaps this vow may have either been a condition of Henry’s grant to her, or a condition Katherine placed upon herself to keep her lands and property safe. As the daughter of a Yorkist King, as much as Henry had a real regard for her, he may not have felt the same about any future man that she may have chosen to marry. There is no proof that he asked her to take the vow of chastity, but it may have been a bargaining tool that saw him grant her the estates, ultimately giving her security without the threat to himself of a new husband at some point in the future using her lineage to threaten the throne. But it may also of course have been something that Katherine decided was in her own best interests. Widows in medieval times were able to run their own estates and take care of their children but once they remarried, their power completely diminished and they once again because subservient to their husband. Having been through so much upheaval and insecurity, this was finally Katherine’s chance to take control of her own destiny once and for all and she must have grabbed the opportunity with both hands, never again having to rely on anyone else for help and support.

Once William had died Katherine spent less time and court and much more of her time on her Devon estates. She remained in favour with her nephew, Henry VIII, giving and receiving gifts from him, as well as several wardships. She was also given the honour of being godmother to Princess Mary.

As a femme sole, Katherine was now able to make a comfortable life for herself in Devon, and it seems she became a well-liked and respected member of the community. Her main residence was Tiverton Castle, which today is a privately owned house which the owners open up to the public. In an inventory taken in 1538 after the death of her eldest son, the castle is described as a mansion, moated, walled and embattled, with houses, offices and lodgings ‘well-kept and repaired’ with fair gardens and two parks. It was originally built as a motte and bailey castle in 1106 by the de Redvers family, the first Norman Earls of Devon. As the centuries moved on, the castle was altered and enlarged and exhibits today all periods of architecture from medieval to modern, along with beautiful walled gardens.

...For over fifteen years she lived here in relative peace and comfort, keeping in touch with her friends and family in London by letter and perhaps travelling to London and the court for special occasions. Household accounts that have survived from the period 1522-23 and 1523-24 detail payments to messengers for taking correspondence to the King and Cardinal Wolsey. She used for her title and seal ‘the excellent Princess Katherine, Countess of Devon, daughter, sister and aunt of Kings’ and in official documents, signed herself Katherine Devonshire.

She also paid a servant who took four horses to her daughter in London and remembered her husband William by paying for a mass on the anniversary of his death. A London Chandler was likewise paid for a year’s supply of wax for Lord William’s tomb.

Katherine ran her own estates with network of stewards and servants; some of her properties were administered for her by a bailiff, and some paid rent directly to her. Her influence was felt throughout the local area, an example of which can be found on a rood screen in Kenn church, which contains a panel to Saint Bridget and is the only known surviving example of a depiction of the Bridget cult in the south-west. The Courtenays presented to Kenn church and before its restoration in the nineteenth century the Courtenay arms were reportedly seen by antiquarians in the east window of the chancel and in a window in the south aisle. It is not believed that Katherine paid for the screen but the presence of Saint Bridget on one of the panels does suggest her influence, particularly because of her family connection to Saint Bridget, the saint whose name her younger sister bore. Katherine did visit the church at Kenn as she presented the new rector, Thomas Mitchell, in 1517. She certainly had a reputation in the parish for her generosity in the giving of alms and was a patron of several religious orders, inviting their members to come and preach at Columbjohn. The rood screen can still be seen today in St Andrew’s church in Kenn. During the reformation, many rood screens were renamed chancel screens but were often defaced or destroyed in an attempt to remove the images of saints and catholic idolatry. Amazingly the Kenn screen survived and it was renovated to its former glory in the nineteenth century.

... What we can also glean from these records is her generosity to staff. Philippa, her maid, upon her marriage received £6 13s 4d and Katherine also covered the cost of velvet for her wedding dress and kirtle, the cost of making the outfit and the cost of the wedding. ‘Andrew of the kitchen’ had garments made for him and her fools, Dick, Mug and Kit were well provided for as she paid for the mending and washing of their clothes. In her Will of 2nd May 1527 she made provision for her servants to be provided for a year after her death. For the Christmas festivities, she bought a ‘gallon of honey, apples and pears bought against Christmas’. Players who performed before the Countess on New Years’ Eve and New Years’ day were paid 13s 4d. Payments for the King and Queen’s New Year gifts are listed as well as a gift to her son of two buckles, two pendants, six studs, six oiletts, six aglets (a metal tube wrapped around a shoelace) and gold and enamel garters.

Katherine, on her estates far away from London, would almost certainly have had an opinion on the goings-on at court but that opinion of course was never recorded. Staunchly catholic as she had been brought up, she would likely have received news of her nephew’s intentions to divorce Catherine with some dismay; she would have known and met Catherine of Aragon on more than one occasion. Thankfully she did not live long enough to witness the arrest and execution of her son. As the King removed the threat of any remaining Yorkists, you cannot help but wonder whether his deep admiration and regard for Katherine would have been enough to save her had she still been living, or whether she too would eventually have fallen under his suspicion. But as it was, she did not even live long enough to see Anne Boleyn finally usurp her rival to become Henry’s second wife, as on 15th November 1527, at 3pm in the afternoon, she died at her home in Tiverton. She was forty-eight years old.

Her body was embalmed, cered, leaded and covered with a pall of black velvet, with a cross of white satin. Upon that was placed another pall of cloth of gold with a white cross of silver tissue garnished with six escutcheons of her arms. Katherine’s body was attended day and night until Monday 21st December, when mourners wearing black hoods and gowns and carrying banners depicting the saints, escorted her body to Tiverton parish church under a canopy of black velvet. The coffin was placed under a richly decorated canopy, which was guarded all night by attendants. The mourning party then returned to Tiverton Castle for a meal.

At 7am the next morning, the mourners returned to the church where a requiem mass was sung by the Abbot of Montacute, who was supported by choristers from the nearby city of Exeter. In honour of his aunt, the King sent one of his chaplains to deliver the sermon. Her Chief mourner was Lady Carew, who was assisted by Sir Piers Edgecombe. After the service, her body was buried in a vault in the Courtenay chapel on the north side of the church (probably near the site of the present vestry). Her funeral was attended by five hundred mourners including the Mayor of Exeter and City Alderman and was a testament to her popularity. After her death, eight thousand poor people were paid two pence each on the condition they prayed for her soul. In her memory, her son Henry had a tomb erected, of which there is no longer any trace; it was very likely a casualty of the Civil War.

Katherine was still living when Thomas More was writing his History of King Richard III between 1513 and 1518, and his description of her is a perfect summing up of her life. He tells us Katherine was ‘long time tossed in either fortune, sometimes in wealth, oft in adversity, at the last – if this be the last, for yet she liveth – is by the benignity of her nephew King Henry the Eighth in very prosperous estate and worthy her birth and virtue’. She did not live long enough to see the outcome of her nephew’s ‘great matter’ that brought about not only his divorce but also radical changes to the religion that Katherine would have held so dearly. And she managed to live out her final years in peace and security and also, one hopes, she managed to find happiness. After all the adversity she experienced in her early life, this Princess of York may not have ended up as Queen of Spain as was originally intended for her by her father, but she managed to obtain for herself her own little kingdom where she could reign as Duchess of Devon.

Sarah J. Hodder, The York Princesses: The Daughters of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville

[fluffydreamland]

Good morning tumblr!,today is my birthday and I turn 16!!! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) (Im not american so I dont do the sweet 16 thing or the driver license stuff),You may dont know but one of my special interests are stereotipically girly videogames!!,I Already have a big collection but this are my additions for this year birthday

Boxed nds games:

Oshare majo love & berry ds collection! (Sadly I dont have the card reader neither the cards to correctly play this one,but it still fun!)

Wantame Music Channel Dokodemo style (I dont have the card reader or the cards play this one but it still playable withouth cards!)

Mecha motte inchou!,Mezase beauty box!

Not boxed nds games:

Barbie groom and glam pups! (Didnt the 3ds version became rare?)

Barbie jet set style! (The character models are horrifyng but its super fun!)

Bratz girlz really rock! (The faces are pretty different from the actual dolls)

Hello kitty big city dreams! (Another addition to my hello kitty game collection!)

Bratz ponyz 2! (Super cute and addicting!)

Bratz kidz party! (My sister says its boring but I love it!)

Gba games:

Barbie superpack: secret agent barbie, barbie groovy games (both of them super fun!)

Care bears: care quest (extremely cute and one of my dreamies added to my collection!)

Barbie and the magic of pegasus (my sister loves this one so much!,so I always lend her this one to play in her gba sp)

Bratz forever diamondz (pretty and fun!,I also have the rock angelz one and its a huge update from that one,they Even got character sprites when they talk!)

Disney princess (very hard!,even on easy mode!)

Kim possible (super fun and smooth sprites!)

Decorations and clear case for my nds:

Thanks for reading!,I hope you liked it!,if any of you wants to see other games I havebinn my collection,tell me down below!,bye bye!

[tameblog]

A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

[ramestoryworld]

A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

[alexha2210]

A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

[angusstory]

A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

[starmotte]

Y'know one thing I've noticed that basically never gets touched on in Slugterra is the spirituality of the place

Like there's GOTTA be some sort of mythology of how the caverns were made, right? I. Admittedly I think about this a lot.

And may or may not have taken the concept if the 'omni-slug' to make my own version of it for this exact reason.

Maybe I'll post about it???? If people are interested??????

[tumibaba]

A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

[romaleen]

A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

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A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link

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A series of canny new structures are getting people to engage with the outdoors in exciting new ways. Veronica Simpson finds out more Words by Veronica SimpsonHolkham is one of the UK’s most spectacular stretches of natural coastline, with acres of windswept, dune-fringed beaches and pine woodlands, surrounded by salt marsh and grazing land that forms the 3,706ha Holkham National Nature Reserve. But until 2019, the area’s many visitors, from beachgoers to birdwatchers, had nowhere to grab a cuppa or relieve themselves within a 20-minute walk of the beachfront, a 15-minute walk of the forest, or the end of the enormous driveway that forms a busy car park for daytrippers, dog walkers or the horse box owners who regularly transport their four-legged friends down for a gallop along the sands.The privately-owned Holkham Estate, which manages the countryside, and Natural England, which manages the beach, agreed that some sort of visitor facility was needed, not just to reduce litter and improve visitor comfort but also to educate people on the area’s delicate ecosystem.Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios) was invited to help develop a brief. But every local consultation concluded with the sentiment that nobody wanted a ‘building’. That is unsurprising for an area triple-protected by Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve designations, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. ‘We set about having a look at the place. We talked about tuning in to Norfolk and the flatlands. You don’t get mountains, you just get sky and land and small variations in between. But there is stuff there. There are little pillboxes that sit on little mottes, there’s a train line, an embankment, bird hides; there was an Iceni fort there 2,000 years ago and that was a motte-and-bailey affair. We thought there has been stuff here that feels right, sits unobtrusively and people don’t notice it. And there are these amazing clearings through the trees that feel like places to stop, pause, reflect. If we could just pull all of that together.’And it is exactly these qualities that FCB Studios has conjured in The Lookout, which opened in 2019 (see case study below), a gently unobtrusive, nicely fading timber structure that sits surrounded by marram grass at the end of that long drive, where the forest and dunes begin. ‘It is the poshest bird hide in the UK,’ Greensmith continues. ‘The twitchers there have been spoiled rotten. I have been there once or twice and the welcome you get from the staff is overwhelming: they absolutely love working there.’It was while encountering this welcoming and vital gesture towards visitor comfort last year, on a treasured break between lockdowns, that I found myself thinking: how many other really thoughtful architectural interventions have helped people to escape the city, or just appreciate the nature on their doorstep? For if anything has emerged as a positive from the horrors and difficulties of 2020, it is the widespread acknowledgement of the solace and restoration to be found in the natural world – whether that’s a walk in a decent urban park, the local woods or something more sweeping and spectacular like the North Norfolk coast.Architecture – and also infrastructure – al fresco is the answer to so much of what afflicts us as the pandemic, hopefully, winds down to more manageable, liveable levels. Every city, town and village has either re-landscaped a square, closed off a street or refurnished a park to create more hospitable and much-needed public space, offering socially distanced, Covid-safe seating, relaxation, refreshments and a sense of community. I did not have to look too far for innovative and inspiring architectural solutions to bringing the public out into nature – and, interestingly, all were conceived well before the word ‘pandemic’ became part of our daily/hourly vocabulary. I found a new restaurant on a barge providing al fresco animation in a bland piece of city; an outdoor walkway that brings an ancient building to life; and a garden made famous by the Beatles now used as the centrepiece of a world-class visitor centre, as well as a training facility for disadvantaged young people (see case studies).And clients and users are hugely grateful for these interventions and additional opportunities to keep their customers safely fed, watered or entertained. As Greensmith says of the Holkham gem: ‘It’s sunny and sheltered, and they’ve got the most wonderful view. You feel that sense of it being part of the good life that people are hankering after.’Undoubtedly, many similar or even more inventive solutions are coming our way in the short term, as even northern European populations realise that nature and the great outdoors – in all weathers and seasons – can be exhilarating.The lasting power of nature was beautifully hymned by the wonderful Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, from his essay ‘Why we need gardens’, in his collection Everything in Its Place. ‘I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organising effects on our brains,’ he wrote, ‘but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.’But it isn’t just greenery that restores and uplifts. Rivers, canals or a simple green mound in the middle of a city will suffice, as Hugh Broughton, of Hugh Broughton Architects, says, of his (almost) pandemic-proof intervention in York, at the famous Clifford’s Tower (see case study on next page): ‘People are rediscovering what’s on their doorstep. And York is a pretty nice to place to find on your doorstep.’CASE STUDY: THE LOOKOUT, HOLKHAMThe Lookout is a delightful, thoughtful and sympathetic building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCB Studios), which has transformed the visitor experience in – and hopefully its impact on – the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is Holkham beach and its surrounds. It comprises toilets, a small cafe and shop, and an orientation exhibition that explains the adjacent wetland. All of this is neatly housed in the building’s circular, timber form; it could be a bird hide in the round, but also evokes the primitive motte-and-bailey defensive structures used by early settlers. FCB Studios’s The Lookout in Holkham has been designed to blend as seamlessly and as unobtrusively into the gentle Norfolk landscape as possible In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better views In the designs, vertical wood slats maintain the centre’s natural aura, but its foundations are sturdily built on a flood-proof concrete ring base, which also pitches the structure above the marshes for better viewsThe vision was to create something ‘memorable but modest, natural and sustainable’, says FCB Studios associate Tim Greensmith. To that end, swales were dug around the building to encourage the salt marsh habitat, and the leftover earth was used to bury flood defences and raise the building, creating a natural mound to give the visitor centre an elevated vantage point and place it above the flood level. Its circular form minimises visual impact in that setting, and offers pleasing views from every prospect, including panoramic ones for birdspotters from the inside. The glazing is faced with vertical larch slats to provide enough visual masking so that visitors remain relatively invisible to surrounding birds. The hole in the canopy over the central circulation courtyard offers a glimpse of Norfolk’s famous big skies, and acts like a clearing in the woods, offering a restful place for outdoor queuing or contemplation. It features a fountain sculpted by a local blacksmith, which provides fresh drinking water on different levels for people and animals. The Lookout’s circular shape minimises the structure’s visual impact, and the central courtyard frames the big Norfolk skyDrainage (foul and surface water) is tucked away, and a concrete base ring completes the flood defences. The entrance opening in the ring also has a flood gate. The galvanised steel superstructure, timber joists and cladding plus integration of rainwater goods was skilfully designed, detailed and executed by Norfolk-based practice Lucas+Western Architects, which took over from FCB Studios after RIBA Stage 3.Client: The Holkham Estate Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lucas+Western Architects Internal area: 154m2 Completed: 2019 Contractor: RobSon Construction Landscape architect: Catherine Bickmore Associates Structural engineers: Integral Engineering Design, Plandescil, M&E Engineer E3 Consulting Engineers, JTC Design Services, Kevin Boast Associates QS/Cost consultant: MAC Construction Consultants Awards: RIBA East Award 2019CASE STUDY: THE OBSERVATORYThe Observatory is a competition-winning project commissioned by SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) to create a mobile artist studio and workshop that would encourage interaction between artists and their audiences. The solution – hatched by four architectural assistants from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, together with Devon-based artist Edward Crumpton – comprises two rotating wooden structures: The Study, a private and weather-tight artist’s studio; and The Workshop, a place for artists to present their work. The temporary artists’ spaces have been very popular, thanks largely to their transportability. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEInspired by the geometric forms of Sol LeWitt and a 15th-century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in His Study, they have proved so popular wherever they have appeared that they are now being offered as artist spaces for hire (£50 a week), and can – within reason – be transported to any location in the UK. The Observatory structures embedded in Lymington salt marshes. Image Credit: RICHARD BATTYEThe paired structures are clad in dark, charred timber panels, contrasting with the smooth, lighter woods used inside the cabins. They are warmed by a wood-burning stove, electricity is powered by a solar panel on the roof, and rainwater is harvested to supply the artists with water.The sites that have successfully hosted them during the initial two-year period are: Winchester Science Centre, Lymington salt marshes, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Buckler’s Hard in New Forest National Park. They are currently at SpudWORKS headquarters in New Forest, and have hosted over 50 artists on short-term residencies.Client: SPUD (Space Placemaking and Urban Design) Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Charlotte Knight, Ross Galtress, Mina Gospavic and Lauren Shevills) and artist Edward Crumpton Construction value: £50,000 Completed: 2015CASE STUDY: STRAWBERRY FIELD, LIVERPOOLStrawberry Field is one of Liverpool’s legendary sites, immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles’s hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, but rarely seen other than by residents of the genteel Woolton suburb where the original Victorian villa once sat. Lennon and his pals, who lived nearby, may have leapt over the walls to play in the woods and gardens, but from the 1930s it was the site of a children’s home run by the Salvation Army, only open for fundraising fetes. And the tennis court, woods and flowerbeds had lain silent and overgrown from 2005, when the children’s home closed down, until the Salvation Army decided to bring the site back to life. Hoskins Architects redesigned Strawberry Field for both a charity-run adult learning centre and the Beatles fans who visit the gardens. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe charity did this for both Beatles-trail visitors – who still turn up to the house’s famous red gates in their thousands every year for photo opportunities – and also as a training hub for young adults with learning disabilities. And they wanted to do so in ways that could maximise enjoyment of the landscape for both parties. This unusual brief was won by Hoskins Architects back in 2012, and a full programme of stakeholder, local college and resident consultations ensued. circulation routes are aided by wide, roving corridors and staircases that are flooded with daylight. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESHoskins’s scheme makes the most of the various levels across the site, placing the entrance to the main building at a raised level at the north of the site, with a direct visual connection and access from the aforementioned red gates – a gesture of welcome that ensures that visitor activity is visible even from the street. This entrance has a reception area that links to a shop, a small exhibition area on the history of the site and a large, glazed cafe overlooking the gardens, with training kitchens to the south. The main youth training centre is tucked away below this floor, with circulation via wide, fully accessible stairs and lifts between them. and a multitude of rooms are incorporated, from classrooms to communal cafe areas. Image Credit: GILLIAN HAYESThe idea, says Hoskins Architects director Chris Coleman-Smith, was to use the whole facility as an opportunity for training – in hospitality, catering and retail, as well as gardening – for the youth trainees, while ensuring that both populations can mix freely, enjoying direct access to the gardens at both levels. ‘The idea behind this was more about breaking down barriers,’ says Coleman-Smith. ‘That’s embedded in the building, which uses universal design principles. Having that interaction between [the] local community and these young trainees… was really key. The central stair was quite important [as] that’s where everybody meets – trainees, staff and visitors.’There is a separate entrance for the training centre, which has flexible, partitionable classrooms and multiple openable windows and doors leading directly on to a working garden. The west-facing ‘front’ of the building articulates the spirit of the diverse programme via materials: the lower, training floor is the more solid space, forming a handsome red-brick plinth, echoing the brick of the original Victorian villa. Inside, it is robust, substantially daylit and functional, with exposed concrete slabs. The upper, visitor floor is more lightweight, with glazed curtain walling broken up by vertical larch mullions, which match the rhythm and substance of the mature trees on the site.A long, oversailing roof extends above outdoor terraces for all-weather comfort, and pushes the observer into the tree canopy. The idea is that, on every level, users can enjoy the connection with nature. The building and gardens are highly legible and fully accessible, with gentle ramps meandering through the planting. It won the Civic Trust’s Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design in 2020 and the Glasgow Institute of Architects award for best educational facility.Client: The Salvation Army Architect: Hoskins Architects Area: 1,360m2 Completed: Autumn 2019 Landscape architect: Rankinfraser Landscape Architecture Main contractor: Robertson Construction Project manager: Gleeds Structural engineer: Curtins ConsultingCASE STUDY: THE CHEESE BARGE, LONDONBritish Land’s major redevelopment of Paddington Central in West London has little to differentiate it from many other new, aspirational office, retail and residential quarters – apart from its canal. Wisely, the developer has realised this waterfront aspect holds the key to placemaking, encouraging (and even, allegedly, purchasing) colourful canal boats to animate this previously underused stretch of the Grand Union Canal. But the most significant investment in bringing people – both local and further flung – to this new quarter is a brand-new floating restaurant, The Cheese Barge, designed by Adam Richards Architects (ARA).The winning design of a competition organised by British Land in spring 2018, ARA’s scheme is inspired by James Stirling’s Electa Bookshop pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice. It is one of ARA founder Richards’s favourite buildings, and the drawings Stirling made for the project, he says, ‘show that he was thinking about barges and boats when designing that. So, we have been designing a boat inspired by a building that was inspired by a boat.’ Image Credit: BROTHERTON LOCKLike Stirling’s pavilion, the barge has a patinated verdigris roof structure oversailing its windows, which also encircles the roof terrace on the top deck; this sloping roofline also references the tarpaulin canopies that were traditionally thrown over London’s freight barges. The copper underside of the roof has been left to cast its burnished bronze glow – enhanced by reflections from the surrounding water – over the interiors, which have been designed by Raven Collective. A natural material palette of oak and recycled elements evoke nautical history and British craftsmanship – reflecting the locally-sourced artisanal produce underpinning restaurateur Matthew Carver’s cheese-oriented menu.The commission brought some additional complexities: the mooring – which is permanent – is longer than is typical, and the client wanted maximum value in that space. So, for the barge to be manoeuvrable along London’s winding canal routes, the structure had to be split in two: the main, double-decker 20m barge, housing the restaurant and terrace, is split off from the kitchen. The kitchen is housed in a smaller, separate boat that is inspired by nautical buoys and connected by an external bridge, which also provides a theatrical stage for the arrival of food to diners. This section has been designed so that it can transform into an outdoor kiosk for al fresco dining on the towpath.A further complication was the requirement for a removable upper deck balustrade, to allow the barge to sail under London’s low bridges. This, and the boat’s steel framing elements clad in steel plates, were all assembled and welded by hand by a Somerset-based marine fabricator.It wasn’t specified that the winning project should follow the traditional form of a boat, says Richards, ‘but in terms of all of our projects, we like to design buildings that look “right” in their setting. Once you have set that up, it establishes certain parameters within which you can play. If you set up the expectation of a boat and play around with it, people can have a much richer experience.’Client: British Land Architect: Adam Richards Architects Size: area 101m2 Internal floor area: 71m2 Completion: May 2021 Interior design: Raven Collective Project management: CPC Project Services Naval Architect: CP Heath Marine Fabricator: Darren Gervis, Marine Fabrication (SW) M&E engineer: CP Heath MarineCASE STUDY: CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORKClifford’s Tower is one of the most recognisable landmarks in York – it crowns the earthwork mound raised by William the Conqueror in 1068. While the initial timber tower was rebuilt with stone in the 13th century and used as a treasury, a 17th-century fire destroyed its interior, and the fortification has remained unoccupied and gently crumbling ever since. As of August 2021, visitors will be able to experience the tower anew via an outdoor walkway and structure devised by Hugh Broughton Architects (HBA), which offers more shelter, considerably enhances vistas around and within site, and transforms visitors’ understanding and enjoyment of the tower and its innovative, quatrefoil structure.Client English Heritage appointed HBA, along with conservation specialists Martin Ashley Architects, for vital conservation works as well as those light touch interventions, and they embarked on extensive public consultation to arrive at the current solution. New elements include a timber deck, which partially covers the ruin, supported by four timber columns. This deck includes amphitheatre seating for groups of up to 30 – ideal for small presentations or stops along the tour – while lightweight metal walkways suspended from the structure give access to previously unseen first-floor features, as well as doubling the access to roof level and the castle wall walkway. An existing stairway up the motte will be improved, while three resting places have been created to allow people to pause and enjoy the site in ways they couldn’t before.‘Previously,’ says Hugh Broughton, co-founder of HBA, ‘people would ascend one of two spiral staircases to walk around the perimeter wall. It was very linear: they would shuffle around, get views over York and go down again. There was a real sense that people visited and didn’t feel enriched by the tower in any way. This intervention is about enjoying the city and views of the city but introducing them to more of the ruined fabric, and enabling them to understand a bit more about the significance of the tower, which was one of the most important buildings [in the city].’The improvements are aimed at boosting visitor numbers but also allowing people to stay a little longer in one of English Heritage’s top ten most-visited attractions.An original proposal for a visitor centre was discarded in favour of an enlarged public area at the base of the motte. Here, visitors can buy tickets and guides from an English Heritage-branded Piaggio tuk-tuk. ‘By keeping that open air quality to the site,’ says Broughton, ‘you are more protected from the elements, as the roof deck comes in over more of the ruin. But it allows the old fabric to continue to breathe. It intensifies engagement and enriches enjoyment of the setting, creating a more atmospheric visit.’Client: English Heritage Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects GIA: Existing: 340m2; new areas: 375m2. Total: 715m2 Conservation architect: Martin Ashley Architects Structural engineer: Ramboll Services engineer: Preston Barber Interpretation design: Drinkall Dean Contractor: Simpson (York) Source link