In a building world where timber for construction almost always comes respectably dressed, a naked tree trunk can have a powerful effect on anyone with a passing enthusiasm for the elemental aesthetic power of wood.

Stephen Owen, part-time woodworker for Cranleigh School in Surrey, is just such an enthusiast. A furniture designer-maker by trade, Owen has taken his love of wood to a new level by designing a 168m2 workshop-cum-creative-space for the school. With the help of only one other builder, local carpenter Glen Macey, Owen is working his way through an impressive pile of 130 chestnut poles cut from the coppice woods of West Sussex, debarking each one by hand as he pieces together his simple but striking vision.

A close-up of the A-frame used in the Cranleigh School project

Cranleigh is a flourishing private school spread out over a modest undulation in the north Downs, eight miles south of Guildford. The campus architecture is an eclectic mix centred on an imposing Victorian red-brick hall. Brick is widely used in vernacular buildings in Surrey thanks to the plentiful clay underfoot, but the presence of many half-timbered buildings in the village of Cranleigh is a reminder of the historical importance of wood in local construction. Given that the village is close to the border with West Sussex, one of the most heavily forested counties in England, this relationship need not be merely historical. Yet there is little precedent for the building now rising in a back corner of the school’s estate. Owen hopes that the sheer individuality of his muscular design in raw timber will be a powerful symbol to the school’s many users of the modern potential of green building. In his furniture-making, Owen has long been inspired by the work of master craftsman John Makepeace. In his building design, Owen sought inspiration from a similar quarter: the buildings of Hooke Park, the Dorset estate established by Makepeace to promote innovation in timber building. The design of his new workshop follows the pattern of the prototype house at Hooke Park where a series of paired A frames supporting ridge poles provide the basic structure. The Cranleigh workshop boasts five such frames, rising to a shallow peak at the central frame. The chestnut poles may be huge but they are the product of coppicing and so reflect the interest of Makepeace in working with forestry thinnings.

The design is just about as sustainable as Owen could make it. Simple pad foundations will support the chestnut poles. The raw wooden frame will be filled out with FSC-certified engineered I-beams from James Jones & Sons. The walls and tin roof will be packed with Warmcell recycled newspaper insulation. The cladding will be home-grown Douglas fir. In the winter the building will be heated by a wood pellet boiler (from Wood Energy Ltd) exploiting a local supply of pellets from the Surrey Hills Wood Fuel Group. In the summer any excess heat will be easily expelled from the open-plan building by opening the doors at either end. Rainwater harvested from the roof will reduce the school’s need for mains water in maintaining its flower beds.

 

The design of the workshop follows the pattern of the prototype house at Hooke Park where a series of paired A frames supporting ridge poles provides the basic structure

The considerable quantity of Surrey clay dug out to level the site is staying with the project to become a wide mound on which audiences may one day gather to view performances on the deck that extends from one end of the building. The pile of construction waste in a corner of the site currently consists of nothing more than bark peelings. Radical timber new build is a rare event in this part of England thanks to the highly constrained local planning regime and this project has only been possible because of its location within the school campus. Owen enjoys the support of a forward-thinking headmaster who was willing to strip £300,000 off the multi-million pound budget for a new Arts building so long as Owen could deliver a simple, safe and effective building within this price. This at first seemed a tall order but the project has moved rapidly from dream to reality thanks in part to the expertise of local architect and timber-frame expert Richard Greening, of Nye Saunders, and engineer Graham Barnard, who boasts a PhD in roundwood timber construction.

Owen hopes that pupils will be using the building in September but he knows that it is not the schedule but the budget that exercises the board of governors. Happily the project’s contribution to local business development has attracted a grant from the South East of England Development Agency but Owen knows he must watch every detail and save wherever he can without compromising the design.

The simplicity of the building design sits well with the aesthetic of the raw chestnut poles. It seems highly appropriate that a space designed for teaching woodwork should reveal its materials and its structure so explicitly. School buildings are designed for teaching but few offer, in their form and fabric, lessons of their own. This building seems to physically express Owen’s enthusiasm: for timber and for the contribution timber buildings can make to a sustainable future. Cranleigh School is unlikely to beget a new generation of tree huggers but, if the 600 pupils meet Stephen Owen only halfway, the building will make a worthy contribution to local appreciation of sustainable design.

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