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The Weald and Downland Museum has long needed a new gateway building to improve the visitors enjoyment of the museum. Sole Street which stood on the site has been moved and re-assembled elsewhere to make way for the new buildings by ABIR Architects. The new structures ably provide new café and restaurant, shop, ticketing, exhibition area and conference facilities. We built both the shop frame and the one next to it forming part of the new café facility.
We have a lot of history with the museum, this being the second new building at the museum that has involved The Green Oak Carpentry Company in its construction, the first being the now famous Timber Gridshell building. The timber frame is a composite structure with bolted stainless steel connections rather than carpentry joints connecting the members.
The palette of materials has been carefully chosen; chestnut timber rain-screen cladding, glass, plain clay tile, cleft chestnut shakes, and standing seam metal roof, combine to make a well-crafted building; all as you would expect from a museum of vernacular buildings.
Over 60,000 cleft chestnut shakes adorn the roofs of the new café and shop buildings. All were provided by local craftsman Ben Law, who first established himself with his book on round pole buildings. The large gable over-sails have been well executed and are underlined with finger jointed chestnut cladding from Inwood.
We like the juxtaposition of the new Gateway building with the medieval hall house North Cray, seen in the background. The new building uses modern construction materials such as stainless steel and glass, contrasting to the historic building behind, which is painted in red iron oxide pigmented oil bound distemper, following discovery of evidence that shows this would have been the case at the time.
This is the smaller of the two frames built at our workshops. Beams were cleaned with dry ice to ensure that interruption of the construction process was kept to a minimum. Views from the café across the lake make this a great place for a cuppa and to rest the feet.
The stainless steel flitch plate connections have been nicely expressed with counter-bored fixings and fabricated webs to stiffen the sections. Here we see the column and truss rafter connection to the eave plate with the diagonal strutting.
Close up of the wall frame strutting and roof brace jointing. The ceilings have been underlined with facetted chestnut cladding to complete a highly attractive interior. Solent Engineering carried out the metalwork fabrication for us to a high standard.
Here we see the truss rafter connections to the ridge beam and associated diagonal strutting. Perhaps a bit over complicated? You decide. The stainless steel sections were electro-polished which brightens the surfaces and enhances the contrast to the oak beams.
Column base connection clearly showing the steel flitch fabrication. Polished concrete floors complete the picture.
We think these buildings form an attractive and well-designed new visitors centre for the Weald and Downland Museum and hope they will be a great success to the museum in the years to come. Plan your visit at: www.wealddown.co.uk
“"I wanted to drop you a quick note to show my appreciation for your guys efforts today; they were a pleasure to have around the house and worked hard to get the frame up today."
Paul, Contracts Manager
“"Seems a long time since we finished with the garden room project but we have to say that it has been a huge success in every aspect. The room has become the place of choice for visitors. I can guarantee that everyone, yes everyone who visits, is blown away by the frame."
Mel, Moat Farm
“"Everyone is very impressed with the finished result and I thought I would just take the opportunity of belatedly giving my thanks to you and your team for a job very well done. I have submitted the bridge for a Civic Society award for next year and have every expectation of its success."
P White, Northholt & Greenford Countryside Park Manager
“"Thanks for the excellent job which has just been completed on the Oak Frame extension to the above property. Not only is the quality of the work faultless, it is a true work of art, which will bring endless enjoyment to me and my wife. The end result has surpassed our wildest expectations."
Ray Nicolaides
“"We wanted to write to you to express our profound gratitude for the excellent work you have done on our building scheme. It cannot have been easy to pick up the project from another architect when there were still a number of issues unresolved, but you have done so brilliantly and remained calm throughout, even at fraught times. We really do appreciate that you have gone the extra mile for us. We have all enjoyed working with you and have been so impressed with the quality of your work."
Alastair, The Early Years Project