Potters Fields Park Pavilions

Categories Urban & Landscape, Workplace
Clients More London Ltd
Completion 2007
Budget £600,000
Project Team Deborah Saunt, Sam Potter, John Edwards
Awards
AR Emerging Architecture Award 2008, Honourable Mention
RA Summer Exhibition 2007

DSDHA were appointed by morelondon to design two pavilions adjacent to Potters' Fields Park.

The first pavilion, Parkside Pavilion, is situated to the rear of City Hall and accommodates a new cafe, public conveniences, auxiliary storage for maintenance plant and associated vents to existing basement plant room.

The second pavilion, Blossom Square, stood under Tower Bridge and was demolished in 2012 to make way for the new London Borough of Southbank and Berkeley Homes development, and provided retail facilities and a sheltered seating area.

Both buildings comprise of stacked horizontal timber; one made of charred black timber, the other of a lightened calcified appearance with a green roof. There is a strong tradition of timber clad buildings set within the parks of London. The design adds to this precedent whilst acknowledging specific local conditions. Anecdotes from local people, as well as historic documents, relate how the site was subject to severe bombing during the Second World War. This emotive history is reflected here therefore in the use of sculpted charred timber as external cladding. The timber has been treated to provide a dark appearance, by burning the wood. The rich effect is complimented with lightweight simple glazing that encloses the retail unit, so that at night it is a beacon across the landscape of the park.

The form of the building is derived from an analysis of movement and views on the site. Its carved form is set within a group of trees that create a veiled view of City Hall. The setting relates to a strong English landscape tradition of grottos and groves and attempts to encourage the public to make use of all of the riverside public space the site ahs to offer.

“The deft urban sense of these buildings and their modesty... makes them such a well-judged aesthetic and social benefit for the site. Architecture can be a successful art in its own right ”.

Ian Hunt, Art Monthly, April 2008

Potters Fields Park Pavilions was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2007.

Team:

Architect: DSDHA

Landscape Architect: TLA / Gross Max

Structural Engineer: Jane Wernick Associates

Cost Consultant: Davis Langdon

Contractor: Alandale Logistic Ltd