Architectural office Hollaway Studio has designed a circular garden pavilion surrounded by pivoting screens to provide a space for horticultural training and rehabilitation at HMP Downview Prison in Surrey, England. The pavilion was originally part of a garden developed in collaboration with designer Jo Thompson for social enterprise The Glasshouse at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Hollaway Studio designed the Glasshouse Garden Pavilion
The Glasshouse Garden was awarded a gold medal at the event for its design, which is consistent with The Glasshouse's mission to provide horticultural training, employment and resettlement support to women emerging from prison. Hollaway Studio designed the pavilion as the centerpiece of the garden, which was fully relocated to HMP Downview, a women's prison in Sutton, following the Chelsea Flower Show.
The structure will be used for classes and group meetings aimed at inspiring women to engage with gardening and discover how gardening builds confidence and skills. In keeping with this idea, the studio designed a building with no spatial hierarchy, no front and back, no thresholds and no handles or locks.
Connect space and garden in harmony
The end result was inspired by Victorian greenhouses, where women paraded, chatted or tended to plants in a relaxed garden setting. As visitors stroll through the grounds, its circular shape provides multiple perspectives of the garden, and the pavilion's continuous gravel flooring blends seamlessly with the surrounding landscaping. The building's pivoting screens can be closed to create a more private space for rest and reflection, or they can be opened to allow the structure to serve as a canopy for group activities.
To better blend the structure into the design, the shades are made from recycled acrylic that has been speckled and softly colored to match the garden's planting palette.
Hollaway Studio managing partner Alex Richards explained that the team aimed to create a building that was elegant, understated and light, yet robust enough to withstand prison life. Richards noted that the colored acrylic shades provide privacy without creating seclusion and playfully interact with the light, providing moments of beauty in an otherwise barren environment.
The building's slim, floating roof was intended to prevent people from climbing on it – one of several limitations imposed by its location within prison grounds.
A pavilion inspired by nature and history
The green sedum roof surrounding a central skylight helps reduce and manage rainwater while contributing to the garden's biodiversity. Water runoff is directed to downspouts that are integrated into the structure to ensure a clean, uncluttered aesthetic. The studio was founded in 2009 by Guy Hollaway and has offices in London and Kent, England.
Flowers “float” on the roof of the pavilion
They have previously completed the world's first multi-level skate park in Kent and a studio for a photographer, which includes a concrete pyramid with X-ray machines. Now they want people to be closer to nature in every way possible, so kudos to them for this project!
Photos by: Ed Reeve.