The Crown Estate: Savill Gardens
Windsor Great Park, Surrey
Architect: Glenn Howells Architects
Structural Engineer: Buro Happold & Haskins Robinson Waters
Principal Contractor: William Verry
The Savill Building
Sitting within Windsor Great Park the Savill Building is dominated by its 90m long timber grid shell roof. The undulating roof is made from a mixture of oak and larch all of which was harvested from existing trees within the grounds of the Crown Estate. Supported on a tubular steel ring beam provided by SH Structures the roof was the result of collaborative approach to design with the engineers Buro Happold and Haskins Robinson Waters and timber specialist the Green Oak Carpentry Company. The completed complex roof features an exposed soffit highlighting a 1m grid of larch members which hide a conventional standing seam aluminium roof that is externally covered with an oak rain screen cladding system. In addition to the roof steelwork we also supplied and installed all the structure which support the various glazed facades that surround the building. The resulting design which houses a reception area, shop, restaurant, lecture rooms and back of house facilities created a dramatic new addition to the Royal landscape and was instrumental in doubling visitor numbers to the gardens. Opened in June 2006 by HRH, the Duke of Edinburgh the project received universal praise for its’ stunning design and how it sits so well within the landscape. Among the many awards secured by the project was the IStructE Supreme Award for Structural Engineering Excellence.
Gallery
