PROJECT: Houses for Hooke Park

LOCATION: Dorset

DATE: 1997

The vision of the Parnham Trust at Hooke Park was to establish a working demonstration of how a sustainable living and working community may be established in the countryside. To investigate how timber, particularly forest thinnings, could be better utilised, a number of buildings were designed exploring different aspects of timber technology.

We obtained planning permission for the construction of five houses, each to serve a different social purpose in rural and urban situations. Westminster Lodge was the first house to have been built and consists of eight study bedrooms arranged around a communal space.

The roof is formed of a bent greenwood lattice grid with the timber joints designed by Buro Happold, and was developed and tested at Bath University with funding from a DOE research grant.