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Client: Bauman Lyons
Location: Richmond, North Yorkshire
Cost: -
Area: -
Project Type: Heritage & Culture
Built in 1620’s for George Calvert (founder of Maryland USA) this unique Jacobean house is filled with furniture, portraits, paintings and the personal belongings of the four families who have owned the Hall (Grade 11*) in the past 400 years. XQLA supported Bauman Lyons Architects from the feasibility stage in the development of proposals for the new visitor centre and café intended to support projected increases in visitors to the site.
Thorough archive and site research enabled a confident landscape strategy to be shaped springing from a clear understanding of the evolution of the estate and the relative significance of its component landscape elements. The resultant scheme proposes the modest new build element of the café and outdoor terrace inserted into the existing fabric of the former Drying Yard, and includes a two courtyards, a ticket office and 98 seater café (28 external) and commercial kitchen.
The landscape scheme supports both an enhanced visitor experience from the car park, and the integration of the building into the existing parkland interface. From the threshold of the entrance gateway the visitor is welcomed within an edible themed walled garden comprised of espalier and fruiting specimen planting. The café terrace sits gently into the adjacent woodland edge with understorey planting of native ferns and bulbs, in a naturalistic style, with the planting mix ‘bleeding’ into the context to create gentle interfaces with the existing established woodland vegetation. Security lines are subtly strengthened with mixed planting beds of native and specimen plants, providing both defensive planting and year round interest. Passive ‘signage’ planting is also utilised to direct visitors from the car park to the Drying Yard, and a combination of hedging and bespoken gateway provide appropriate definition to ‘off limit’ areas.