Great Britain. A pavilion in a school in the woods reflects the dreams of the students

Designed by Studio Weave, this pavillion located in the garden of Northolt’s Belvue School, is a house in the woods, a domestic and dreamlike space thought for students with severe learning difficulties.

Studio Weave’s projects are representative of a somewhat typical approach to architecture, playful in its shapes while very engagé in its cultural and social ambitions, which they share with other “young” Brits, such as multi-award winning collective Assemble. Therefore, also in the case of the pavilion that they design in the garden of Northolt’s Belvue School, no reflections can be carried out on the shapes and spaces of the building (three rooms for extra-curricular learning activities), without mentioning the sharing and participation process that Studio Weave puts in place with the students (who have moderate to severe learning difficulties).

The project is made of three contiguous modules, replicating the same distinctive double-pitched concave silhouette. A skylight separates the two sloping surfaces, ensuring the natural zenith lighting of the interiors, as well as a chimney effect providing a sufficient ventilation rate. The numerous wooden surfaces (the vertical timber cladding on the external façades, as well as the exposed structure and plywood in the interiors), the bright yellow fixtures, the varied shapes and irregular layout of the openings, the zig-zag profile of many elements (such as the window sills) define a domestic and yet dreamlike atmosphere.

Studio Weave engages in giving shape to the visions that Belvue School’s students have been projecting on the forest, which appear to them as a mysterious elsewhere, an unknown and magical place. The pavilion aims at functioning as a house in the woods, regardless if, after all, this is just made of a bunch of trees separating the garden from a busy A-road. Situated on the threshold between the familiar and the exotic, it is a safe platform to leave on a challenging journey, to prove themselves on a path of knowledge and exploration.