Camperdown Contemporary Wood School

Project idea

Camperdown Country Park is located on the northwest boundary of Dundee, composed of over 400 acres containing 190 species of tree. The site serves the community as a transitional space between the cityscape and the rural farmland beyond. Bordering both residential and industrial areas, the park benefits a wide demographic and hosts a variety of events year-round.
The project requests an architectural design proposal for a contemporary wood school located within Camperdown Country Park, Dundee. The proposal should exhibit an imaginative and innovative response which prioritises tectonic issues in construction, order and expression whilst demonstrating a commitment to rural industries, timber materials, timber processing and the pursuit of innovative techniques at the forefront of sustainable design. Visitors and people working and studying in the building will come to understand the multiplicity of possibility that this beautiful material has to offer and as such the proposal will act as a demonstrator, presenting didactic examples of innovative structural forms for the carpentry students who train there.

Project description

The proposal wholly seeks to envelope itself within the context of the park through its position, massing, form and execution, striving to connect and enhance the users’ experience with nature and their surroundings. The design’s orientation directly responds to a set of definitive ‘rails’ derived from prominent trees on the sloping site, exemplified by the existing track which runs along the southwest. To further explore the sites topography, the building’s mass was split into two stepped forms, the public space located in the upper slides back to create an open rooftop and the private sinks into the landscape stipulating a focused, productive environment. A stereotomic mass, acting as a breakout space with framed views to surrounding features, unites the two forms and establishes a clear visual connection to the dominant sandstone corner of Camperdown House which overlooks the site. The flat roofs presented an opportunity to further embed the proposal within the site, laying both with a native wildflower blanket to enhance the buildings connection to the landscape with the lower roof undulating in a pattern following the existing contours, ensuring preservation of the existing ecological environment despite the built interventions.
Internally, the design aims to immerse the visitor through the aspirational art of carpentry as they are guided through the linear form by the repetitive glulam frame structure. The Hellerup stair, a pure expression of carpentry, forms an informal educational space which mimics nature’s path, cascading down to capture a view of the main workshop. To further enhance the experience, skylights on the lower roofscape frame aspects of the production areas, offering visitors with glimpses into the workshop spaces.
The proposed design, through a series of innovative moments, informs and connects the user to both carpentry and the natural environment.

Technical information

The design is constructed from a rectangular glulam frame structure which uses CLT floor/roof slabs. In the stereotomic mass, the external envelope consists of a rammed earth cavity wall with rigid woodfibre insulation, and elsewhere, a timber frame filled with woodfibre insulation clad in Scottish Larch timber rainscreen cladding.

Documentation

Show PDF 1Show PDF 2