The brief

A timber canopy for rowers, swimmers and Sunday walkers — a tree-like frame of glulam beams sheltering a café, changing rooms and a boat store. The client asked for a building that would feel generous on its first day and still feel right in fifty years — robust, repairable and easy to love.

We began, as always, on site: walking the edges at different hours, measuring the light, and talking to the people who would use the building every day. The plan grew from those conversations rather than from a form chosen in advance.

Structure and material

A simple, legible structure carries the whole project. Materials were chosen for how they age — timber that silvers, concrete that takes on patina, steel left honest — so the building can grow older without needing to be renewed.

Living with it

Since opening, the spaces have been adapted by their users in ways we did not draw. For us, that is the clearest sign that the architecture is doing its job: setting the stage and then stepping back.