Buttress Architects | Stockwood Discovery Centre

A significant redevelopment project at Stockwood Park which included the restoration of the listed walled gardens and stable blocks, extension and refurbishment of the Mossman Carriage Museum and introduction of new entry building, café and toilets.

Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton is a popular family visitor attraction that includes a carriage museum, a number of themed and historic landscaped gardens, adventure play areas as well as galleries with local history collections and exhibitions. We designed a masterplan for the popular site which created a new point of entry and visitor route and integrated the individual buildings and landscape to improve the visitor experience.
Key to the design is the bringing together of many different structures, areas and ideas from across the site. The arrival point to the site was repositioned and the new entrance, shop, café and toilets were created as a series of built units that are positioned to lead people into and through the site.

An external orientation drum structure also works with the landscape designs and directs people on various routes taking in gardens, galleries and play areas.

The existing Mossman Carriage Museum was extended and gallery spaces re-displayed; and an education suite and visiting exhibition gallery has also been created.
Sustainability was a key element in all new designs. The idea to break the new build into a number of small units allowed us to place them discreetly into the landscape without affecting the mature trees. The new buildings and extension to the museum have a highly-insulated timber frame structure and are clad with a mixture of brickwork and cedar boarding. The new entry building and café building also have a ‘living’ sedum roof. Engineering solutions are discreetly integrated and include wood fuel bio-mass heating boilers and solar thermal water heating.
RICS East of England Awards 2009: High commended in the community benefit category