"SOAKING UP THE NATURE."
Location: Great Fen, England.
Project started in: 2013
Architect: Etienne Wijnen (ZI)
Great Fen, a competition held by RIBA, called for a new modern sustainable visitors centre, located in Cambridgeshire, England. Great Fen is a 3700 hectare parcel of farmland that is planned to be returned to its former wetlands.The visitors centre is created to allow the public to witness this gradual regression of the cultivated landscape. It will act as a central point where all the local walking, cycle and equestrian routes meet. The complex will also house a permanent exhibition about the area’s history and future. The structure is created with the same idea of regression. Using the locally cultivated reeds as insulation and within the concrete surfacing to allow for rapid aging, thereby removing its static nature in the landscape. The building becomes a living, breathing object - just like the surrounding wetlands once were.
