Set in the context of famous and beautiful listed gardens, this project sought to provide new tea rooms and visitor's centre at the heart of the gardens. As Architects, we approached this project with an open vision and an eye on flexibility, its sensitive context and value for money. Thorough on site research formed the key drivers, those being that the architecture should be simple to build, fairly conservative in its approach as it sits within a National Park, however more pertinently needed to have built-in flexibility to increase revenue potential for different uses. Our design developed around the notion of the building being a modest tea rooms in quiet times of the year to a full catering canteen and visitor's centre in high season. Proposed potential uses included a wedding reception 'anchor' venue to attach temporary marquees to, for commercial use such as conferences and meetings, a fully functional tea rooms and servery, as well as being able to expand during peak seasons to cater for bespoke events as required. The design incorporated much needed new WC’s at the heart of the gardens meaning that visitors kept coming back to the centre of the gardens, generating further income and introducing alternative ways to explore the gardens. More tea and cake was certainly one of the key project drivers!