Designed for the popular new Children’s Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens these buildings aim to generate excitement, joy and curiosity in the natural environment and work in harmony with the innovative landscaping.
The Discovery Shelter is a place for experiments, close observation and group activity. Sited overlooking the wetlands area, the large overhanging roof opens out to the lake and the deck steps down over its edge. Sturdy Cypress poles support a series of radiating laminated cypress beams; these project beyond the zigzagging roof edge and a series of overlapping bamboo poles mediate the sharp cut-off of the roof eave. They filter the light gently, rather like the iron lacework on Victorian terraces. Where they cross at the beam ends, the bamboo poles are lashed together and the ends of the plastic ties project upwards, as if this fastest growing timber resource was resprouting with life and reaching again for the skies.
The deep roof is penetrated by two large eye-shaped skylights; these too are lined with radiating bamboo poles to reduce glare, and form delightful pools of light and shade on the floor. The simple fittings include plywood faced storage cupboards, and the external walls of the shelter are clad in vertical batten-and-board radially sawn Yellow Stringybark.
The Activity Shelter is a space for performances, storytelling and gathering, mysteriously tucked away into dense foliage, aligned with a rare and ancient cork oak. Completely different in character to its sister pavilion, it is both more enclosed and less solid, dissolving into its heavily planted surroundings. A central Cypress tree-column supports a wide polycarbonate roof completely lined with radiating bamboo poles of random length. Solid timber screens at the back give way to walls of open vertical timbers of random length; timber and bamboo nearly meet as the roof edge gently curves down. Inside the pavilion the screens and roof create a gentle dappled forest light across the tan bark floor, and provide privacy to those inside whilst allowing glimpses of the more active spaces outside.
Ian Potter Children’s Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Victoria2003
Royal Botanical Gardens (VicGov)