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The Shirley
Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is the most recently completed
project in a long line of commissions for the Royal Botanic Gardens.
These include award winning structures to the Millennium Seed
Bank at Wakehurst Place and the Wolfson Wing, Jodrell Laboratories
at Kew.
The Gallery was designed to provide ideal conditions in which
to show works which are of a fragile nature, predominantly on
paper. The display spaces had to meet stringent lighting and
humidity requirements. The building's unobtrusive design is sympathetic
to the adjacent Marianne North Gallery and to the surrounding
gardens. A subtle link at the back joins the two galleries.
The structural engineering approach was to provide an elegant
and lean structure which integrated with the energy strategy
and provided the high degree of transparency required by the
architecture. Structure for the Gallery was designed to have
minimal ecological impact and construction methodologies were
carefully controlled to mitigate disturbance to visitors to the
Gardens.
The superstructure is framed in steel with slender columns supporting
a two way spanning grillage of beams which carry the roof and
stabilise the facades. The roof structure, which creates a large
column free space over the principal gallery was designed to
be fabricated in long ladder like sections off-site, with connections
between them designed to provide the necessary structural continuity.
Specially designed details between the columns and roof beams
accommodate thermal movements and minimise forces acting on the
glass walls.
ACE
Engineering Excellence Award 2009
Civic Trust Award 2010
Principal:
Nirupa Perera
Project Engineer: Louise Quick |
