by Robert Such

Designed by London-based Allies and Morrison Architects, the new 2.2 million euro Welney Visitor Centre lies in the heart of the Fens, in the East of England. Rich in wildlife, the flat Fenland landscape of around 1,000 square kilometres is criss-crossed by a network of rivers and tracks. The Welney Visitor Centre houses a range of facilities, such as interpretation areas, galleries, a café and a shop, at the gateway to the Welney wildlife reserve.

The visitor centre client, the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust, which manages some 16 square kilometres of land and 18 protected nature sites around the country, initially only planned to replace a dilapidated steel bridge that took visitors across to a bird-watching observatory. The observatory stands on the high bank opposite the new visitor centre, and the two structures are now linked by the new steel and timber-slatted bridge.

At the competition stage, Allies and Morrison teamed up with engineering firm Arup to submit a design proposal for both a new footbridge and a visitor centre. The building would facilitate access to the bridge for people unable to use stairs. To enable entry onto the gently curving bridge, the barn-like building had to be a two-storey structure, and “it had to be amazingly simple”, says Allies and Morrison Architects partner Paul Appleton. “It needed to be a very straightforward shape in order to be conceived as beautiful through not being complex.”

Approaching the centre, visitors pass a reed bed system and ponds, which capture rainwater that runs off the building’s seamless skin of feather-edged ship-lapped larch cladding. Behind this folded wooden rain screen are a breather membrane and a cavity wall filled with recycled paper for insulation. In response to practical requirements in the client’s brief, the architects cut into the building’s volume at various points. The southeast corner on the ground floor was removed so that children in the education centre can easily move indoors and outdoors. On the first floor, the building was sliced through to make the landing stage for the 117-metre-long bridge.

To create smoother surfaces where the volume is cut away, the architects used tongue and groove boarding. At the gable ends, horizontal larch batons across windows screen the interior from direct sunlight, and also help to maintain the impression of a solid wooden envelope. Inside on the first floor, rectangular ceiling openings serve as both skylights and escape routes for rising air.

The bright and spacious café occupies a generous volume under the pitched roof. From floorboards to ceiling ridge, the 12.5-metre-wide room is seven metres high. On a tight budget, Allies and Morrison Architects developed a strong architectural concept that has been carried through into the design of a sustainable building whose unadorned simplicity and unpresumptuous appearance should please many visiting birdwatchers for many seasons to come.

https://www.alliesandmorrison.co.uk