Timber framed building softened by a veil of greenery and complemented by The Field
Sheppard Robson for Allied London
Contract value: £5.5m
GIA: 1,281m2
Cost per m2: £4,294
Sitting in the public realm at the heart of Spinningfields, the pavilion is a permanent venue for high-end food and drink. The building was envisaged as timber-frame, complemented by a landscaping scheme called The Field; both knit together surrounding buildings and open up city centre links. Like the architect’s earlier project for the same developer, No.1 The Avenue, the building’s cantilevered ends open up the ground plain to maintain connection with and views through Hardman Square. The gridded form of its expressed frame firmly anchors the new building in its context of commercial offices, while its timber structure provides relief from its metal and glass neighbours. This cross-laminated timber frame is partially obscured and disrupted with planters on each floor, hanging gabion baskets and climbing meshes, which continue up to a roof terrace crowned with an array of trellises, trees and canopies; a veil of greenery that wraps over and softens this urban form.