Glasshouse Garden pavilion offers "moment of beauty" in women's prison
Architecture firm Hollaway Studio has designed a circular garden pavilion surrounded by pivoting screens to provide a space for horticultural training and rehabilitation at HMP Downview prison in Surrey, England.
The pavilion originally formed part of a garden developed in collaboration with designer Jo Thompson for social enterprise The Glasshouse at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The Glasshouse Garden was awarded a Gold Medal at the event in recognition of its design, which aligns with The Glasshouse's mission to provide horticultural training, employment and resettlement support to women leaving prison.
Hollaway Studio designed the pavilion as the garden's centrepiece, which was relocated in its entirety after the Chelsea Flower Show to HMP Downview, a women's prison in Sutton.
The structure is used for teaching and group meetings aimed at inspiring women to engage with the garden and discover how horticulture builds confidence and skills.
In line with this idea, Hollaway Studio designed a building with no hierarchy of spaces, no front or back, no thresholds and no handles or locks.
The final outcome was informed by Victorian glasshouses, where women would parade, socialise or care for plants in a relaxed garden setting.
Its circular form provides different views of the garden as users move around the space, while continuous gravel flooring connects the pavilion directly with the surrounding landscaping.
The building is lined with pivoting screens that can be opened up so the structure functions like a canopy for group activities, or closed down to create a more intimate environment for relaxation and contemplation.
The screens are made using a mottled recycled acrylic that is subtly coloured to complement the garden's planting palette, helping the structure to integrate more fully into the scheme.
"We wanted to create a building that is elegant, subtle and lightweight, yet robust enough to be fit for life in the prison," Hollaway Studio managing partner Alex Richards told Dezeen.
"The coloured acrylic screens provide privacy without seclusion and playfully interact with the light to offer a moment of beauty in an otherwise stark environment."
The building's slim floating roof was designed to prevent people from climbing on top of it – one of several constraints dictated by its setting within the prison grounds.
The green sedum roof surrounding a central skylight light helps to reduce and manage rainwater whilst adding to the garden's biodiversity. Water runoff is directed towards downpipes that are integrated into the structure to ensure a clean, clutter-free aesthetic.
Hollaway Studio was established in 2009 by Guy Hollaway and has offices in London and Kent, England.
The studio has previously completed the world's first multi-storey skatepark in Kent and a studio for a photographer featuring a concrete pyramid that holds X-ray equipment.
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