Gazebo Concreto

Fisher Studios

• Architects

This is a gazebo with a difference. A functional sculpture modelled in a single material: concrete. The design exploits concrete's extraordinary structural capabilities to create a dramatic cantilevered canopy, massive yet weightless

The brief for this project was simple: to provide shelter. Our client wanted a covered terrace in the garden so they could spend more time outdoors, day or night, rain or shine.
But beyond its pragmatic function the client wanted something of higher architectural purpose too. The ask was to create something which exploited to the full the sculptural potential of a single material: concrete.

photo_credit Fisher Studios — Fisher Studios

The client loved the poetic purity of spaces and forms created only in concrete and defined by daylight: nothing more. With reference to Brutalist precedents and the particular example of John Lautner’s Sheats Goldstein house in LA, they asked us to design a structure which achieved the purer artistic ideals of architecture; manipulating space, light and form to create an inspiring, resonant, habitable sculpture.

Concrete is basic; it has no airs, it has a raw purity. It is also supremely versatile and can perform extraordinary structural gymnastics. We wanted to exploit these characteristics to the full by cantilevering the canopy out and imbuing it with an airy weightlessness in contrast with its manifest mass. So, we stood the canopy off the existing building on four slender columns away from the corners, we applied a triangular geometry to give the canopy a sharp prow, and we gave it the requisite depth where necessary by coffering the soffit. We then punctured that soffit with an array of small circular pavement lights, peppering the polished concrete terrace with bijou pools of sunlight.

Concrete has a high carbon footprint. This is a very small construction, nonetheless it is not harmless. We were clear from the start that if we were going to use concrete we would need to compensate for it by properly and fully offsetting. This could not be done on site so we researched the most effective and assured way to do so. Hence the client has financed the requisite amount of new woodland planting in Yorkshire.