Designed with Heatherwick Studio for Bacardi Ltd

The greenhouses demonstrate a unique and innovative approach to employing curved glass as a structural component, pushing the boundaries of Paxton’s great greenhouse structures.

Felix Weber, Façade Project Manager

Two new glasshouses form part of Bombay Sapphire’s new state of the art distillery and visitor centre in renovated paper mill buildings, adjacent to the River Test. One tropical, the other dry temperate, the glasshouses showcase the ‘ten botanicals’ that flavour the maker’s gin.

The structural skin of each house is an extruded circular ‘pleated’ form. From the base which sits in the river bed, it extends vertically upwards, then bends and narrows towards an adjacent building. The ridges and valleys follow so-called “flow lines”. The design was driven by a desire for a pure geometry, with minimum cross elements to maintain transparency and minimise distraction from the smooth flowing lines.

The challenge for the design team was finding a structural concept, materials fabrication and geometric optimization that would maintain Thomas Heatherwick’s vision and achieve the required budget and programme. Before going to tender on performance basis, the design was reviewed regularly with a number of potential contractors to seek feedback on feasibility and pricing.

Parametric modelling and the sharing of 3D information was a key element in the design process, which sought to break down the complexity of the houses into a series of solvable steps. The curved and twisted L-shaped steel profiles that form the continuous “flow lines” are made of laser cut and bent stainless steel plates, fixed with a series of staggered metal connectors; plate shapes and connector geometry were directly derived from the 3D model.

The team approximated the double curved glass skin with a series of cylindrically bent panels with constant curvature as, crucially, they could be produced as heat-treated laminated glass on fairly standard machinery. In order to achieve a “fluent” geometry, a small amount of cold bending on site was still required, to avoid stepping of the glass surfaces and to overcome differences between the cylindrical glass panels and the varying curves of the steel rails. A list of all glass panels with their size, production radius and amount of on-site bending was automatically generated to support the tendering companies’ discussions with their glass suppliers.

The entire scheme at Laverstoke Mill has been awarded a BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating for its approach to sustainable design. The centre will be opening to the public in October 2014.

toby.clark@arup.com

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