Savill Garden Gridshell – the Savill Building

There are not many timber gridshells built in Britain today. Completed in 2005 the Savill Building was technically a very demanding structure. The completed building was so popular that today visitor numbers have more than doubled from 250,000 to over 500,000 per year.

New sawn Larch was supplied from the Crown Estates own forests for the timber (50 x 85mm) laths which, like its predecessor the Downland Gridshell, were bonded into continuous lengths using a finger joint, and the structure assembled in situ over a flat scaffold deck.

Adjustable props were then manipulated until the structure had achieved it’s final 3D form. Locking off the structure to the steel ring beam commenced along with insertion of blocking and further layers to make up the 4 layer gridshell.

Awards

The completed Savill Garden Gridshell building was shortlisted for the Stirling prize, won the Wood Awards Gold Award, and won the Institute of Structural Engineers Supreme Award for Structural Excellence, among others.

Close collaboration was essential from an early stage to ensure the optimum cost, quality and programme was achieved for this innovative timber structure. The Savill Building is a wonderful example of innovative timber construction.

Savill Building

Using sustainable timber from the Crown Estate forests – larch and oak for the roof and floor – the Savill Building was constructed as a single cell space over-sailed with a gridshell roof. From inside the vast cathedral-like central space the visitor can see the awesome, apparently self-supporting, green-wood roof, drawing the eye upwards and out towards the gardens through a glazed wall.