Mottisfont Abbey is one of the National Trust’s most popular properties in the region: visited by over 250,000 people pa, it is renowned for its rose gardens and contemporary arts programming. BHA were appointed in 2010 following invited design competition, with a brief to improve the entrance facilities at the historic estate: our new buildings opened to the public in 2016. * Consultation & Engagement: We led consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, whose input informed design decisions and preparation of a site-wide masterplan, and enabled the scheme to be developed with the support of all. It meant our proposals for the new buildings, in a highly sensitive location (adjacent to a listed landscape, greenfield site and SSSI) and for alterations to the Grade I listed Coach House to café, passed smoothly through planning. * Layout Form & Massing: The new buildings are set between the existing car park and a tributary of the River Test. They house visitor arrival & ticketing space, a new shop with associated storage, office and staff room, visitor wcs and a covered external area that can be used as temporary café/sales space. The buildings are raised off the ground to avoid the flood plain, and arranged around a courtyard that connects to a new walkway and bridge, and to landscaped paths beyond. Arranging the accommodation into a collection of buildings means the perceived scale of the development is reduced, and forms a series of connected outdoor spaces. The scale and pitched roof form of the two main buildings make reference to the type of small scale agricultural or forestry buildings that might typically be found on the edge of a large estate. The timber and glass visitor reception space that connects these gives visitors a view through to the courtyard beyond, and a clear sense of their route into the Estate. * Materials, Structure & Detail: Bold, clear and reductive detailing of everyday materials allows the buildings to be understood as contemporary interpretations of simple agricultural vernacular forms, which will weather naturally over time. The buildings are designed to have minimal impact on the site, and the prefabricated timber structure is precisely set out and clearly visible internally with distinctive dia-grid framework. The shop is clad externally in weathering steel, the WC’s in timber and the entrance largely glazed, with deep timber fins adding texture and minimising solar gain. Together the buildings have an understated yet distinctive quality that reflects the culturally creative approach of the estate whilst also being appropriate to their setting in adjacent to the listed landscape. * Procurement: The buildings were procured under traditional form of contract with BHA acting as contract administrators, and were delivered within budget. Our close co-ordination and supervision of the works on site ensured design quality was carried through to the smallest detail, and includes design of some furniture elements.