Garden Designers & Landscape Gardeners
Garden Buildings in South & East England
A Thai Pavilion in the Tropic Of Henstead.
Left - the platform decking steps change angle as they curve to the circular layout ascending through a jungle of Psuedosassa japonica bamboo on the left and the Huge leaves of Gunnera manicata on the right.
Right - the sound of the stream is an important part of the Thai pavilion experience; its sound is captured under the roof as it flows from underneath and you can look down into the rushing water and follow its meandering course.
Left - as seen from the central circular patio. The style of the roof is generally Oriental but is interpreted as Thai, Japanese or Chinese by different visitors.
Right - one of the functions of the pavilion is as a viewing platform. Situated at the highest part of the garden it has the best panoramic views and also provides a focal point when viewed from other parts of the garden. Its roof appears to be floating over the plants.
Left - during the construction of the seats inside the pavilion.
Centre - you can see the stepping stone path approaching the pavilion in this shot. The path to and from it is as important as the building itself - both are arranged in one circle that spans the entire width of the garden. This circular walk provides opposite experiences with the pavilion raised up on one side of the circle and the cool and dark Tree Fern Valley on the other side.
Right - instead of simply making a flight of steps to ascend into the pavilion we wanted to make an experience of every part of this journey. Views change slightly from each different angle here and there is room to stop and appreciate this on the way up.
Left - there are two benches inside, one has a high back giving a comfortable reclining position for prolonged relaxation and socialising and the other has a lower back so that you can see over it and into the garden, it has a wide sill on it allowing you to comfortably lean as demonstrated here so that you can look down into the stream.
Right - here is the view from the Pavilion with the stream in the foreground, looking over to the Fairy Tale Summer House.
Left - the steps exiting the 'back' of the pavilion face into the ancient woodland beyond the garden.
Right - the rafters that support the cedar shingle roof were left as exposed as possible and protruding from the sides of the roof. When approaching the pavilion from a lower viewpoint they are one of the most eyecatching and oriental looking features of the building.
Left - the owner and friends relaxing in plenty of space on a late summer evening. In this photo you can see our lead caps on the ends of the protruding roof beams which protect them from rain water as it flows off the roof and along the tips of these rafters.
Right - the garden is open to the public several times a year for different charities and has been known to attract up too 750 people in one day. In this photo there are 7 people inside the pavilion, but there is room for another 3 all seated.
These photos show the curving approaches to both ends of the pavilion. Although it can acommodate 10 people as seen above we wanted to keep the overall structure as light as possible, so the strength of the building comes from the 4 x 20cm sqare posts at each corner. They support the floor, seats and roof, which sits on two 'wall plates' - one running between each of the front and back pairs of posts. The minimal use of structural timber keeps the building 'light' and does not make its impact on the garden overbearing, we wanted the roof to appear to float over the platform in as simple a form as possible.
Top left - here you can see how massive the posts look while the structure was still in its infancy. You can get a sense of how big the garden is by noticing the white of the cottage in the distance. We will never forget carrying these huge peices of wood all the way to this back corner of the garden!
Top right - after the decking platforms were finished and during the building of the seats.
Below left - this photo shows how curved some of the peices of elm were. We decided to leave them naturally curvy like this despite our supplier offering to cut them straight for us. If you look at the seat on the right you can see the curves in the sitting surface, and the lower backrest of the left hand seat is up and down as are the floorboards. We felt that this added character to the structure.
Below right - in this photo you can see a large part of the circle that runs right around the back of the garden, turn left and you go to the Thai Pavilion, turn right and you go to the Tree Fern Valley. In the middle of the photo passing through a young grove of bamboo is the central crossing path that leads over the pond via a bridge, then onto the central star patio at the dead centre of the circle. It then passes through an avenue of 8 Trachycarpus fortunei palms and on to the Face Stone, which you can see through the bamboo in this photo, where it intersects the other side of the circle in direct alignment with a beautiful Oak tree in the ancient woods beyond.
