The roof under construction 
The internal panelling takes shape 
The yard landscaping 
The cladding
The Cotswolds near Shipton Under Wychwood
We were approached by the main contractor because this was going to be a zinc roof construction and we had recently completed a complicated one. We took on the project for him, all on very amicable terms.
The Architect is Timothy Tasker of Putney, London
Honeydale Farm specialises in sustainable crop management and livestock husbandry and sits on 100 acres of land in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was appropriate that the Architect Timothy Tasker was inspired by this environmental sensitivity when designing their new visitor centre.
He chose a layout that reflected the local farm architecture that uses buildings and courtyards to provide shelter. The honeybee, so important to agriculture and the environment, inspired the use of natural patterns following the Fibonacci Sequence found in their comb structure and genetic profile.
One such pattern is used in the layout of the larch cladding.
The cladding consists of larch boards with widths calculated from an algorithm developed by Ben Fitchett to follow the Fibonacci sequence and appear naturally random.
This provided us with a challenge!
Each board needed shadow gaps on the outside of the building which all had to line through. The shadow gaps on inside also had to remain consistent. Boarding the panels inside to remain constant with the steel structure, all internal boarding was machined down on site and designed to run in line with window and door frames.
We are very pleased with the result.
One of our favourite features though, is the mosaic honey bee that we built into the landscaping for the courtyard. This was designed and made by one of our clients, Sue Rew, it really looks good as it sits on the path between the two buildings that were inspired by it.
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The centre had its first guests in January 2020 and many expressed their admiration for this wonderful building.