New visitor facilities, Red House, Bexleyheath
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View of new pavilion from garden path
Buddy Haward Download Original
Burd Haward Architects have recently completed this pavilion for the National Trust in the grounds of William Morris’s Red House
A modest, economical building that houses three visitor WCs and a cleaner’s cupboard, its significance lies in the fact it is the first new structure built on the site since the seminal Arts & Crafts building by Philip Webb was completed in 1860.
The roof form of the pavilion echoes and mirrors that of Webb’s steeply pitched, hipped and gabled Stable building nearby, albeit clad in timber and clearly reading as a contemporary addition. It effectively forms a new ‘book-end’ to the adjacent Coach House, completing the composition, and making a new relationship between the three outbuildings.
The building is entirely clad in timber, inside and out. Timber boards are taken up external walls and over the pitched roof, and open louvres provide a naturally lit and ventilated entrance enclosure. Internally, walls and underside of roof are lined in birch-faced plywood. Dark tiles, which match the original external engineering bricks, cover the floor.
Data
- Begun: Dec 2011
- Completed: Mar 2012
- Floor area: 20m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £63,000
- Tender date: Aug 2011
- Procurement: JCT MW
- Address: Red House, Red House Lane, Bexleyheath, London, DA6 8JF, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Burd Haward Architects
- Project architect: Buddy Haward
- Client: The National Trust (London & SE)
- Structural engineer: BCS Consulting
- Main contractor: Malcolm Charles Contracts Ltd.
Suppliers
- Thermowood supplier: Vincent Timber
- Birch faced ply wall / ceiling linings: James Latham
- Floor tiles : Domus