Liverpool 2009
The so-called ‘hot walls’ of 18th and 19th century walled gardens are the inspiration for our design for the new educational, conference and seed production complex at the National Wildflower Centre. Victorians used walled gardens as a means of creating a microclimate in which to grow fruit and vegetables. Walls were often built of brick to retain heat and release it at night, and in some gardens double walls known as ‘hot walls’ or ‘fire walls’ were built with shafts between the skins where fires could be lit to artificially heat walls and thereby force fruit to ripen more quickly.
Our 21st century vision for the Wildflower Centre re-purposes the ‘hot wall’ to become an integral part of a sustainable new complex – providing a run for building services and also defining the main public areas of the building. A series of brick walls leads the visitor through the educational/conference facility. The length of these walls and the spaces between them grow successively longer and larger according to the Fibonacci sequence, creating a striking open-plan facility that can be occupied flexibly as display areas, classrooms, breakout spaces and conference use.