Bauman Lyons won a competitive tender to develop a new welcome centre for Kiplin Hall CIO in the grounds of their Grade I Listed Jacobean Hall in North Yorkshire. The welcome centre accommodates tearoom, kitchen, retail and ticketing facilities allowing the Trust to expand their operations to cater for growing visitor numbers. The contemporary design complements its unique context responding to a historic drying yard on one side and a sheltered woodland on the other framing long views to the Lake. The scheme was granted Full Planning and Listed Building Consent in October 2022.
The design responds to its historic setting with a contemporary re-interpretation of an estate working building supporting the main Hall. The building features two characterful roof forms that peer up behind the retained drying yard walls and honestly reflect the tearoom and kitchen functions beneath. A glazed welcome block draws visitors into the drying yard while organising the yard into a series of more intimate spaces. Working with the yard’s enclosed nature the arrangement provides multiple functions – a secure ticketing route, external circulation to reduce congestion inside and a colourful walled garden offering attractive commercial and interpretive opportunities. The buildings’ massing and siting hint at more activity ‘around the corner’ and ‘through the garden wall’ reinforcing a design language inherent throughout the landscape, revealing spaces and views sequentially.
Internally, the tearoom is a top-lit space structured by exposed glulam scissor trusses. These provide spatial character and evoke walking under the tree canopies in the surrounding woodland. Built-in exhibition walls display vintage kitchenware from the Annie Marchant Collection, creating a rich and textured backdrop to the tearoom while generous glazing on the west side looks out to the woodland and Lake beyond.
Highlights:
- The scheme strives to achieve a low carbon footprint. The exterior extensively uses timber cladding for the walls, timber shingles on the pitched roofs and the tearoom employs a timber frame system. Air source heat pumps provide a sustainable means of heating the building.
- The project followed an extensive, well received and lively engagement process with the Estate’s volunteer cohort, Hambleton Council and Historic England.
- We were delighted to be working with long term collaborators The Creative Core (Exhibition & Interpretation), BWA (QS), Xanthe Quayle Landscape Architecture, Alan Wood & Partners (Civils & Structure), Waring Stewart (Catering & Retail), Preston Barber (Mechanical & Electrical), Ferrey & Mennim (Conservation) and Brooks Ecological.