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Architecture Studio ‘Reed Watts’ Create Unique Clubhouse
Today, it was revealed that architecture studio, Reed Watts, have created a modern yet familiar clubhouse for Teddington Cricket Club. Grand Designs, eat your heart out.
The amateur cricket club based in Richmond upon Thames, London, had previously been using two prefabricated huts that were built in the second World War…so a revamp was very much needed. And, boy, is it a revamp.
Reed Watts wanted the pavilion to reference the former structures to maintain the club’s heritage, whilst being respectful to its scenic location in the Royal Park. A feat we feel they’ve accomplished with the two black end-buildings that represent the historic sheds and the natural-coloured timber mid-section that assists in blending the clubhouse into the surrounding shrubbery and long grass.
Photography courtesy of Reed Watts
The brief was came from the cricket club and land-owner, who both wanted to create a discrete but identifiable building that maintains the beautiful setting of the Bushy Park, while doubling the amount of floor space of the club's current building.
“There seemed to be an expectation that new pavilions should be reproductions of Edwardian buildings with little or no sense of place,”
”Before we became involved, this is what the club had imagined – white render, red tiles and a dovecot – a generic typology,”
”We didn’t think this represented the club’s ambitions or values and certainly did little to respond to the landscape setting. While the new building does reference historical forms, the layout and minimal detailing are distinctly modern.”
It’s fair to say it’s an exceptional piece of architecture that integrates beautifully with its local environment, whilst maintaining the clubs heritage and offering a versatile space for cricket to thrive.
Raise your bat, Reed Watts.