Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
The building comprises two elements: the heavily constructed artefact store, partly buried in the ground to achieve the required steady climatic conditions via thermal mass; and the workshop building above, which is enclosed by a lightweight timber gridshell providing a generous amount of daylight.
The building is constructed from locally sourced materials
The site is a treasured landscape within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Materials
Local materials used include Normandy oak gridshell, with the whole shell fitted on a single low-loader; western red cedar cladding from a local stand of trees 25 miles from the site; and English oak joinery.
Low-energy strategies
The orientation and sitting the building on an existing shelf cut into the chalk hillside. Uninsulated ground slab and thinly insulated masonry walls to the artefact store allow their thermal mass and that of the ground to allow heat to flow unimpeded with the seasons. Earth-tubes provide passive heating and cooling.
Low-impact materials
Roofkrete ribbon roof - simple sand and cement over steel mesh; dominant use of local timber; and locally manufactured masonry.
Energy
The building receives occasional background heating only, as the uninsulated ground slab and thinly insulated walls allow the thermal mass of the ground to be used. The heating system is designed to run continuously at a low level throughout the year to achieve a temperature of 16-19 degrees C.
No energy consumption figures are available yet.
Cost
Construction cost £1100/sqm