The highly inventive Gridshell at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum is made from curving oak and houses a conservation workshop and timber store. Designed by Edward Cullinan Architects.
As the first timber gridshell building in Britain, the innovative construction process is of particular interest, and has resulted in a building that is strikingly contemporary but which sits happily in a rural context. It provides a flexible space that works equally well as a venue for functions and weddings as it does as a workshop, with inconspicuous space beneath for a collection of tools and artefacts from rural life.
The museum has expertise in timber restoration and conservation, and so a timber building was a natural progression for it. Such a contemporary structure was a brave step for a conservation museum to take, both financially and aesthetically, but they have been rewarded both by an increase in visitor numbers and a place on the short-list for the 2003 Stirling Prize.
