BOMBAY SAPPHIRE DISTILLERY DESIGN BY HEATHERWICK STUDIO
BOMBAY SAPPHIRE
DISTILLERY DESIGN BY HEATHERWICK STUDIO
Laverstoke, UK
How do you turn a
paper mill into a gin distillery?
Ten years after
winning a design prize from gin-maker Bombay Sapphire for a glass bridge idea,
the studio was commissioned to lead the master plan and design of the company’s
new distillery in the south of England.
Having previously
operated from shared production facilities, this was to be Bombay Sapphire’s
first dedicated distillery and headquarters and was an opportunity for the
company to consolidate its manufacturing ability and improve efficiency.
The site in the
village of Laverstoke straddles the River Test, one of England’s finest chalk
streams. Originally operating as a corn mill, the land was acquired in 1718 by
Henry Portal and developed for the manufacture of paper to produce the world’s
bank notes. Over the following two centuries it grew into a sprawling
industrial complex, including a series of Grade II listed buildings such as the
mill owner’s house, the workers’ cottages and the main mill building. The
result was an uncoordinated accumulation of over forty buildings which made the
site chaotic and confusing to find your way around. Equally challenging, the
River Test which runs through it had been narrowed and hidden within a
steep-sided concrete channel making it almost impossible to perceive.
To bring clarity to
such a disparate site it became obvious to us that it would not be enough to simply
restore the existing historic buildings, but that we needed to reveal the River
Test once more and to use it as a device around which to organise
everything. We also felt that the site’s new master plan would only work
with the creation of a central courtyard as a gathering area and a point
of focus.
To turn these
thoughts into reality we worked with government agencies English Heritage and
English Nature to meticulously restore twenty-three of the existing historic
buildings, to conserve the local wildlife and also to negotiate the removal of
nine of the most recent industrial structures and a poor quality bridge.
The other significant move was to substantially widen the river and reshape its
banks to form sloping planted foreshores in order to make the water visible and
valuable once more. Each careful decision to take away a building structure in
turn gave space for the surrounding rich English countryside to be glimpsed
again from the heart of the site. At the same time we became very conscious
of not wanting to lose a sense of the evolution of the site. So wherever a
modern dilapidated building leant against an older historic structure we
removed the modern addition but left its mark on the remaining building fabric
as a trace of where it had been. This selective process of de-cluttering the
site was as necessary on the inside as on the outside.
The initial master
plan brief had also included the creation of a visitor centre. However on
seeing the vapour distillation process and the sculptural forms of the large
copper gin stills, one of which is more than two hundred years old, we became
convinced that witnessing the authentic distillation process would be far more
interesting and memorable for a visitor than any simulated visitor experience.
This production technique, that is different from those used by other gin
distillers, is still carried out in accordance with a recipe devised in 1761
and involves infusing the gin with the vapours of ten tropical and
mediterranean herbs and spices.
This led us to think
about growing these botanical herbs and spices on the site, which in turn
pointed us towards a rich British heritage of botanical glasshouse structures.
The Victorian curiosity and passion for the new science of horticulture had
driven the creation of everything from the extraordinary palm house at Kew
Gardens to the craze for Wardian cases, ornate indoor glasshouses for growing
and displaying collections of exotic ferns and orchids. We wondered whether
this could be the world’s first botanical distillery and whether we could let
visitors see the real distillation process rather than having a separate
visitor centre.
The studio developed
the idea of building two intertwining botanical glasshouses as a highlight of
the central courtyard, one tropical and the other mediterranean, to house and
cultivate the ten plant species that give Bombay Sapphire gin its
particularity. Excitingly, as the industrial vapour distillation process
produces excess heat that otherwise has to be taken away, and as the creation
of tropical and mediterranean climatic environments in the British context
require additional heat, there was a potential virtuous circle if we could tie
these two things together.
The resulting
glasshouse structures spring from one of the historic mill buildings, now
re-appropriated as a gin distillation hall, recycling the spare heat from the
machinery to make the perfect growing conditions for tropical and mediterranean
plants. The two glasshouses then embed themselves into the flowing waters of the
newly-widened riverbed. Working with a team from the Royal Botanic
Gardens at Kew as horticultural collaborators, the ten exotic botanical plant
types grow in the two structures alongside over a hundred additional plant and
herb species that provide the accompanying ecosystem required to maintain them.
The resulting
complex geometries of the new asymmetrical glasshouses took many months to
calculate, engineer and refine. The finished built structures are made from
eight hundred and ninety three individually-shaped two-dimensionally curved
glass pieces held within more than one and a quarter kilometres of
bronze-finished stainless steel frames. In their entirety the glasshouses are
made from more than ten thousand bespoke components.
On arrival, visitors
walk to the newly opened-up river, before crossing a bridge and making their
way along the waterside to the main production facility located in the centre
of the site facing into the courtyard and new glasshouses. Through careful
restoration of the historical buildings, widening and revealing the River Test
and the construction of a new gin factory system including new glasshouses,
this project juxtaposes Laverstoke’s historical past with an interesting new
future.
The distillery
opened to the public in autumn 2014 and was awarded an ‘outstanding’ BREEAM
rating for its design, making it both the first distillery and the first
refurbishment project to have ever been awarded this rating.
You may reach
Heatherwick Studio's others projects from my blog archive UK Pavilion Shangai
Expo, Extrusions and Boat River Loire – France to click below links. You may watch the video to click above link of vimeo web page.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2013/05/heatherwick-studio-extrusions.html
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2013/07/bleigiessen-design-by-heatherwick-studio.html
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Photograph by Iwan Baan
THOMAS HEATHERWICK
Established by
Thomas Heatherwick in 1994, Heatherwick Studio is recognized for its work in
architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking.
Today, a team of 90 architects, designers and makers, work from a combined
studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London.
At the heart of the
studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions,
with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials
and craftsmanship. This is achieved through a working methodology of
collaborative rational inquiry, undertaken in a spirit of curiosity and
experimentation.
In the eighteen
years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a
wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments.
Through this experience, the studio has acquired a high level of expertise in
the design and realisation of unusual projects, with a particular focus on the
large scale.
The studio’s work
includes a number of nationally significant projects for the UK, including the
award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Olympic Cauldron
for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus for London.
Thomas is an
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects; a Senior Research
Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and has been awarded Honorary
Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, University of Dundee, University of
Brighton, Sheffield Hallam University and University of Manchester.
He has won the
Prince Philip Designers Prize, and, in 2004, was the youngest practitioner to
be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2010, Thomas was awarded the
RIBA’s Lubetkin Prize and the London Design Medal in recognition of his
outstanding contribution to design.
