Studio Weave were commissioned to design a pavilion as part of the Churchman Landscape Architects led redevelopment of the Thames Riverside Walk in Nine Elms.
The pavilion provides shelter for the public, as well as for a storage facility for equipment to be used for local events. As a result, the square facilitates activities that complement the ongoing development of Nine Elms. The raised garden allows the pavilion to address the square while providing an additional patch of greenery easily appreciated from ground level.
Fabricated from copper coated water tank panels, the pavilion cradles a medley of rich foliage that acts as a honey pot for creatures great and small. Hawthorn trees, and a rainbow of grasses and perennials will create a home for wildlife as well as a splash of seasonal colour to the thoroughfare. Habitat is also created by the cladding to the water tower forming House Sparrow terraces.
The structure which supports these panels is of galvanized steel clad in timber, inspired by industrial revolution era flitch columns. The design of the proposal gives a nod to the industrial legacy of the Nine Elms area sparked by the industrial revolution, and to the quay structures now lost from the post-industrial bank of the Thames. Studio Weave invited print artist, Linda Florence, to design and print the colourful pattern adorning the timber
The walls at ground level, planters and the water tower are made from proprietary water tank panels. The panels are pressed steel and as such require sealing and weathering. Although these would be typically over-coated with additional finishes to both sides, the architects found that galvanizing provided ideal protection to the steel as well as an optimal base for finishing.
The external faces of the panels were coated with a cold applied polymer composite finish. The panel faces internal to the store room were left to expose their galvanized finish and the external copper finished faces left unsealed to allow natural weathering and verdigris to develop over time.
Read more about the Nine Elms Thames Path Pavilion.
