The Kindersley Centre

Alec French Architects, Lambourn, 2003

 

Subscribe now to instantly view this image

Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.

Already a subscriber? Sign in

Entrance tower, with Kindersley Centre to right and farm offices to left 

Adam Wilson     Download Original

  • Entrance tower, with Kindersley Centre to right and farm offices to left    
  • The centre, boarded in Western Red cedar, and rendered farm office wing sit lo and sheltered on the site    
  • The Kindersley Centre by Alec french Architects    
  • The rear of the centre, with doors to the restaurant and the projecting stair tower    
  • Entrance lobby with stair part-concealed    
  • View from restaurant towards the entrance, with courtyard frontage to left    
  • Restaurant with stair wrapped around a conical oven    
  • The main conference space with Douglas Fir cruck-framing, ash walling and oak flooring. Note the earth wall to    
  • Site plan of Kindersley Centre set among other working farm buildings. Bank to north-west may be site for future residential accomodation    
  • Ground floor plan    
  • First floor plan with second floor plan inset    
  • Main conference space showing heating and natural ventilation    
  • Restaurant with open kitchen below and eating mezzanine above    
  • Timber frame detail    
  • Wall/roof detail    

Sustainable conference centre in the heart of Berkshire that reworks the idea of the cruck-framed long barn

Sheepdrove Organic Farm, one of the largest organic farms in the UK, required a highly sustainable centre for the promotion of organic farming and biodiversity.

The Centre, located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, includes conference, study and education spaces, a restaurant, shop, and new farm offices which have been arranged in a relatively formal sequence, with a symmetrical arrangement of wings edging a large square south facing courtyard.

Despite the building sitting low and sheltered on its site, it is naturally ventilated and makes use of sustainable materials with waste products bio-degraded in reed beds. The design reinterprets the concept of the long barn and utilizing innovative timber engineering.

The roof is clad with cedar shingles on a pitched structure consisting of four massive arched frames. The Kindersley Centre was the winner of Civic Trust Award as well as the Civic Trust Special Award for Sustainability.

Data

  • Begun: Apr 2002
  • Completed: 2003
  • Sector: Civic
  • Total cost: £2.6M
  • Tender date: Sep 2001
  • Procurement: JCT 98 With Quantities and Contractors Design
  • Address: The Kindersley Centre, Sheepdrove Organic Farm, Lambourn, RG17 7UU, United Kingdom

Professional Team

Suppliers

AJBL Sponsor

Thrislington Cubicles

Builders of the worlds best toilet cubicles, vanity units, lockers and panels at our factory in the United Kingdom since the 1960s

Find out more