Seeding Change: Visionary Timber Architecture at Hooke Park 1981–2001 reconstructs the experimental genesis of one of Britain's most consequential sustainable building initiatives, tracing how a west Dorset woodland became a laboratory for roundwood timber construction and material-led architectural thinking.
About This Book
Hooke Park began in the early 1980s as an initiative by John Makepeace and the Parnham Trust, its ambition to pioneer new forms of timber construction using locally sourced roundwood from its own west Dorset woodland. The campus produced three experimental buildings — the Prototype House, the Workshop, and Westminster Lodge — each the result of close collaboration between foresters, structural engineers, and architects. Now stewarded by the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Hooke Park remains a living argument for material-led, sustainable design. Drawing on extensive archival material, this volume reconstructs that founding period, making a strong case for the continuing relevance of its methods to contemporary sustainable architecture and construction practice.
Key Features
- 168 pages of archival documentation, project analysis, and collaborative histories spanning the campus's founding two decades
- Edited by Kate Davies and Anna Lisa Reynolds
- Three experimental buildings examined in depth: the Prototype House, the Workshop, and Westminster Lodge
- Published by AA Publications, ISBN: 9781919624587
What You'll Discover
- How locally sourced roundwood — an unconventional structural material — was developed into a viable construction system through iterative experimental building
- The cross-disciplinary collaboration between foresters, engineers, and architects that defined Hooke Park's founding approach and set it apart from conventional architectural education
- The institutional history connecting John Makepeace and the Parnham Trust to the Architectural Association's ongoing stewardship of the campus
- How the three Hooke Park buildings function as a collective case study in sustainable, material-driven design with implications for contemporary building practice
About the Author
Kate Davies and Anna Lisa Reynolds edited this volume, bringing together archival research on Hooke Park's founding period. Both are connected to the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which now stewards the Hooke Park campus.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 168
- Dimensions: 18 x 23 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781919624587
- Publisher: AA Publications
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and engineers with an interest in timber construction and sustainable building, architectural historians focused on late twentieth-century Britain, and educators and students at the intersection of material research and design practice.