Langley Vale Visitor’s Hub

A Convivial Landscape
Within its ancient, down-land setting, our design for a new visitor’s hub in Langley Vale, Surrey, is conceived as part of a ‘convivial landscape’: a landscape that provides activity spaces for the local community, wildlife enthusiasts and children to share and enjoy. The new landscape connects the proposed WW1 centenary memorial, playground and car park and forms the ‘welcome mat’ from which visitors can explore the ancient woodland beyond.

A Woodland Journey
Located at the intersection of three fields in rural Surrey, the visitor’s centre stands as the gatehouse to the landscape with a formal, south-facing courtyard-style space marking the entrance to the building with the inter-connecting informal landscape to the rear. The building’s L-shape design helps to create a form of enclosure and a sense of place with long views through the entrance and main gathering space to the downs landscape beyond. The main space is light and voluminous providing views out to the landscape beyond.

A Down-land Rhythm
The building is organised as three distinct elements each forming a specific function; the hall, the entrance and the support spaces. Each element has its own roof profile similar in scale to the canopy of the adjacent trees. The scale and profile of the roofs create a silhouette along the ridge of the downs similar to the rhythm of the adjacent trees and appropriate to its woodland setting.

Straw Tops
The language of the small ‘straw tops’ continues to the information points on the approach from the car park to help navigate visitors to the hub as well as providing light and voluminous spaces. The information canopies by the tree planting information points in the landscape also feature small thatch roofs that provide a sense of coherence to the visitor’s journey through the site.