The design for the park shelter was created this past July when six Prince of Wales’s Graduate Fellows joined eleven Prince of Wales’s Building Craft Apprentices on a three week Residential Summer School put on by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.

As one of the participating Graduate Fellows, I had the opportunity to design a structure for Ellon’s Gordon Park after studying and sketching the local architectural language, meeting with local stakeholders and learning about traditional Scottish materials and building practices. The octagonal design with double-sided, ruin-like local granite stone benches, atop of which sit pentagonal Douglas fir posts with arched members curving up to the ring beam and slate roof, was selected in a public vote by the community locals who were invited to the session. The pavilion is to be built in three weeks by the Craft Apprentices working under the direction of timber and masonry master craftsmen.

Below are several of the drawings and photos from the Summer School Presentation.

Perspective looking out to Gordon Park from the pavilion

Perspective of the pavilion in Gordon Park

Pavilion Elevation

Pavillion Section

Pavilion Model, © Richard Ivey

Graduate Fellows and Building Craft Apprentices working through design and construction details
© Richard Ivey