GORDON CASTLE WALLED GARDEN, SCOTLAND

The restoration of historic garden buildings, and the construction of a new café and learning centre, within a very large walled kitchen garden connected with a historic estate. The new building uses simple rustic materials, with a corrugated iron roof and oak weatherboarded walls, in a formal Classical arrangement of a central portico flanked by pedimented wings. The portico columns are tree trunks, a motif found elsewhere in Scotland, and a reminder of the idea of the ‘primitive hut’ as the origin of Classical temple architecture. The café and learning centre include a commercial kitchen, rooms for meetings and mentoring, and staff facilities to support the public visitors to the walled garden.