海角视频

Hooke Park

Dorset, UK

海角视频鈥檚 involvement in the early experiments at Hooke Park helped to redefine what was possible with locally sourced timber, and those ideas continue to add value today through the endurance of the structures, the skills they seeded and the low鈥慶arbon design principles they anticipated.

Conceived with our founder Sir Ted 海角视频 and collaborators including Frei Otto and Ahrends, Burton & Koralek (ABK), these projects turned green roundwood thinnings from a Dorset forest into architecture and engineering learning in the round.

Hooke Park is a 350鈥慳cre woodland in Dorset that was originally acquired in 1983 by the Parnham Trust under furniture designer John Makepeace, who established it as a campus for the School of Woodland Industries. In 2002, ownership transferred to the Architectural Association, under whose stewardship Hooke Park has since grown into a landscape-scale laboratory for interdisciplinary teaching, research and prototyping.

From the early Prototype House of the mid鈥�1980s, Hooke Park has continually evolved. Key milestones include the landmark Training Workshop, designed by Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK) with Atelier Frei Otto, and Westminster Lodge by Edward Cullinan Architects. Later developments include Architectural Association projects such as the Caretaker鈥檚 House, based on a schematic design by Unit 2 of the AA Intermediate Programme in 2009鈥�10 and subsequently developed for construction by Invisible Studio. The South Student Lodge, designed and built by Design and Make students, followed shortly after. Together, these projects shaped Hooke Park into a living campus where structural ingenuity meets thoughtful stewardship of the landscape.

This page curates that story across nearly four decades. It is both an archive of pioneering work and a present鈥慸ay case study in longevity. Our ongoing site visits over recent years have confirmed that the original timber structures are performing well in the demanding forest environment, with only localised issues one would reasonably expect after many seasons in the woods and simple remedial actions recommended.

Challenge

The first challenge was material and mindset. The Parnham Trust asked us to use what the Hooke Park forest could readily supply: small鈥慸iameter logs and immature thinnings with little commercial value at the time. Rather than milling, kiln鈥慸rying and laminating, the ambition was to work with minimally processed roundwood, close to source, and to do so in structural forms that were more than rustic sheds. That required new jointing strategies, new ways to pre鈥憇tress green timber, and a comfort with variability that conventional productised systems tend to largely bypass.

The site itself posed geotechnical and environmental tests. The Training Workshop sits below an escarpment shaped by ancient landslips and fluctuating groundwater. Foundations and drainage needed to respect those underlying movements while avoiding wholesale tree clearance. Across the campus, the forest climate is unforgiving: wet winters, wind exposure, organic debris, and shaded, slow鈥慸rying facades that test any detail that traps water.

Hooke Park was, by design, a place of prototyping. The Prototype House needed to demonstrate that roundwood thinnings could act in tension as catenary roof elements, not just as quaint compression posts, yet do so with serviceable deflections and predictable long鈥憈erm behaviour. The Training Workshop multiplied the difficulty, asking three shell roofs of bent poles to span 15 metres with elegant, repeatable geometry and reliable connection logic, all erected economically as a kit of parts on a remote woodland site.

Later interventions brought a different set of constraints. As the Architectural Association extended the campus, new buildings had to coexist with the early structures, meet contemporary energy ambitions, and navigate the practicalities of student occupation, from tight tolerances at openings to Passivhaus鈥憀evel airtightness in the Caretaker鈥檚 House. In parallel, our recent condition review had to separate characterful ageing from genuine structural concern, and to frame proportionate maintenance for a campus that thrives on hands鈥憃n learning.

The Prototype House, completed in 1986, was the first building realised at Hooke Park under John Makepeace and the Parnham Trust. Designed by Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK), Frei Otto and 海角视频, it originally provided accommodation for the School for New Woodland Industries. The structure is supported by four Corsican pine roundwood A鈥慺rames, which carry a ridge cable suspending slim roundwood Norway spruce rafters. Images: Architectural Association.

Solution

We approached the material challenge by treating the log as a structural opportunity rather than a limitation. For the Prototype House, we set slender roundwood poles at close centres and formed them to a controlled sag, so the roof worked like a cable net in timber. A simple but carefully tested family of joints allowed steel rods to be resin鈥慴onded into stepped bores, transferring tension cleanly without crushing fibres. At the ridgeline and eaves, the forces resolve into discreet cable ties, keeping the visual language light and honest while giving the system the ductility it needs.

On the Training Workshop, we developed a repeatable method to bend green poles into consistent arches, fixing a laminated crown piece at the apex and using paired members to moderate the effect of natural taper. The shell geometry was rationalised so each longitudinal member met each arch at a clear node, set out to be fabricated and drilled on the ground and then assembled quickly in the air.

We devised a robust 鈥渘oggin鈥� detail at every node so the structure behaved as a kit, tolerating the inevitable dimensional scatter of roundwood while delivering a continuous load path. Bracing is quietly carried by the inner membrane acting in tension, with mineral wool insulation and an outer reinforced roof skin providing a durable, weathering envelope. The raft and upstand walls below were positioned to avoid crossing slip lines, with a transverse drain intercepting groundwater and a no鈥慺ines concrete zone to maintain porosity where required.

Throughout, the buildability strategy was as important as the analysis. We trialled pole bending to find the safest limits for green timber, refined techniques for springtime debarking and boron treatment, and learned to over鈥慴end and relax members rather than creep them into shape. The result was a practical sequence that reduced breakages dramatically as crews gained experience. 海角视频 were conceived with the woodland in mind. Underfloor heating stabilised workshop comfort without cluttering the floorplate, natural stack ventilation complements openings under the springing line, and a pragmatic energy strategy allows for future biomass while meeting day鈥憃ne needs.

As the campus grew, the same principles of fit鈥慺or鈥憄lace engineering guided new work. Westminster Lodge tested long鈥憈erm performance of exposed timber and green roof loading. Following the AA鈥檚 takeover in 2002, the Big Shed, a generous making space, uses straightforward envelope repairs and improved drainage to manage water ingress where cladding gaps admit driving rain.

The Caretaker鈥檚 House, with its high fabric aspirations, demonstrated how precise airtightness can coexist with a timber superstructure, while our recent review simply recommends improving ventilation beneath the suspended floor, replacing isolated weathered deck boards, and cladding rain鈥慺acing column edges to shed water and encourage airflow.

At South Student Lodge and North Lodge, targeted actions such as over鈥慶ladding wet columns, cutting back non鈥憇tructural cantilever ends that wick moisture, inserting screws across twist cracks to restore composite action, and clearing vegetation at column bases extend service life without compromising the original design intent. Across the site, the watchwords are ventilation, water shedding and reversible, proportionate repair.

Value

Hooke Park鈥檚 value to the client and to the wider industry lies in three dimensions that still resonate. First, it is proof of concept built at campus scale. The Prototype House and the Training Workshop show that small鈥慸iameter roundwood can carry real spans with grace, that tension in timber can be normal rather than novel, and that a membrane鈥慴raced shell of bent poles can be set out, fabricated and erected as a repeatable system. The engineering ideas were bold but they were also teachable, and the buildings became classrooms for structural thinking as much as for making.

Second, it was an early, clear statement of low embodied carbon logic. Using local thinnings, with minimal processing and short transport, cut the energy of the structure to the bone long before the industry had universal metrics for embodied carbon. The 鈥渦se what the woodland gives you鈥� approach foreshadowed today鈥檚 interest in short supply chains, biogenic materials and circularity. That thinking is now mainstream across our timber portfolio. Hooke Park reminds clients that economy, ecology and elegance are compatible when the structural concept matches the material.

Thirdly, it demonstrates longevity by design and by care. After decades in a damp, shaded woodland, the original structures are standing up well, with issues limited to localised weathering where details trap moisture, clogged gullies and the odd resin or strap that needs attention. Our inspection confirms that modest maintenance, better airflow at vulnerable interfaces, and selective replacement of sacrificial elements are sufficient to keep performance on track. It demonstrates to today鈥檚 clients that experimental does not have to mean ephemeral, and that timber architecture in challenging settings can be durable if it is ventilated, drained and easy to maintain.

Hooke Park has always been more than a set of buildings. It is a collaboration across generations between engineers, architects, students and foresters. For 海角视频 it is also a thread that runs from Sir Ted 海角视频鈥檚 conviction to 鈥渢ouch the earth lightly鈥� through to our present commitment to regenerative design. The campus showcases structural invention, teaches practical wisdom about timber in weather, and continues to fuel new conversations with universities and partners. Most of all, it proves that engineering value can be cultural as well as technical: a place that grows ideas and people, and a body of work that keeps giving back to the woodland that made it possible.