Great Fen Visitor Centre / competition
The project’s main idea derives from the observation of the natural environment of the site and its manipulation by the human factor. The concept is based on an attempt to mimic a very common phenomenon of agricultural terrains. The stacking of blocks of hay and their impulsive installation in the middle of endless fields.
The new "Great Fen Visitor Centre" is not a building. it is a stack of volumes placed in the landscape. A complex that its volumes are manipulated in a way that do not create boundaries in the continuity of the landscape. On the contrary, they create intense spatial qualities where the landscape penetrates the "Visitor Centre" and vice versa.
The proposal is followed through a network of elevated pathways that connect the development with the two agricultural roads on the sides. At the same time it ties up all the Centre's different programmatic functions.
One of the proposal's basic concept is to allow the wildlife of the wider area to flow and grow through the Visitor Centre. The built environment is not interrupting any movement of animals or growth of the vegetation. The complex is part of its content, respecting it and promoting its evolution.
Opposite the main entrance of the Centre, there is an observation tower that offers a very intense panoramic view of the whole area. The tower is also working as a landmark for the "Great Fen Visitor Centre".
Design
Athens Creative
Project Team
Aggeliki Anagnostopoulou, Alexandros Avlonitis
Location
Cambridgeshire, UK
Type
Competition Entry
Date
2013