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Project: National Wildflower Centre Location: Knowsley, UK Description: Education, Conference and Seed Production Complex Client: NWC / Landlife The National Wildflower Centre is a 3000m2 educational, conference and seed production complex in Knowsley, near Liverpool. The design was an entry in an international competition organized by the RIBA for a building that is "intended to be an inspirational statement that reflects the modernity and forward thinking ethos of creative conservation, highlighting links between nature and the development of cutting edge scientific theory." Order: Wrapping the building in light The building consists of a sequence of spaces 'wrapped' in a highly ordered timber 'skin'. The order of the building skin follows the Fibonacci sequence in form and density: Form: The radial folds of the skin mimic the Fibonacci leaf growth order but with their own corresponding functional purpose: to block, filter or expose the interior to light, heat and air. Density: The surface of the skin is ordered by the Fibonacci sequence reoccurring at different scales to create different densities of skin. In the same way that this mathematical sequence orders a flower's form for survival and reproduction, it also orders the building's form to optimize light, heat and air to its interior. Experience: A lens on the world Again like a flower, the functional structure of the building is not purely mechanical, but is also perceptual and aesthetic. The skin is an experiential and perceptual 'lens' on the world; its materiality overlays the geometry of nature's underlying order on to your view of the natural world as you look from/through the building to the display gardens outside. The building acts to change your perception of the world. |