Restoring and enhancing rural qualities of green belt openness

Atelier Architecture & Design introduces Digital Orchard, a post-production facility in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB). The area is known as Europe’s largest natural park, consisting of unique woodland, downland, and chalk stream habitats within 30 miles of London. The program will re-establish the natural ecosystem, which has been compromised by poor land management, and will create an enviable working environment.

Photo credit: AA + D

Thanks to this project, the client’s post-production team will move from a basement studio in London to a peaceful backdrop of ancient woodland, improving creative staff performance and wellbeing. The client aspires to act as curator, restoring and enhancing rural qualities of green belt openness, including ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows, and orchards.

The entrance
Photo credit: AA + D

The cloister
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The foyer
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Edit Suite
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Soho Basement Studio
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The concept seeks to merge architecture and landscape with the needs of post-production in a sustainable way. This approach reinforces the client’s vision and provides a catalyst for business transformation. The architecture draws references from storytelling in the post-production industry, as well as from ancient Celtic symbols, to bring landscape into the function of the building. The masterplan creates themed habitats, such as wildflower meadows, woodland fringe, shade gardens, apple, and cherry orchards that penetrate the floor plan, infusing the courtyard and buildings. The cloistered walkway connects offices with indoor and outdoor meeting spaces. The larch rainscreen skin interacts with its surroundings, and sliding timber screens provide adjustable openings for privacy and shade. The building skin is highly insulated with passive strategies maximized for heating and ventilation. Rainwater is recycled for irrigating and maintaining the different landscape lairs.

Drone view of former equestrian centre
Photo credit: AA + D

The River Misbourne
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Wildflower meadow
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Ancient woodland fringe
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Celtic carving of entwined lemniscate
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Architecture and landscape reinforce each other, enhancing the location’s natural ecology and drawing out its potential as a creative workplace. Through architecture, engineering, and landscape design, this masterplan creates a building in a living landscape, reconnecting people with nature, and nature with people.

Courtyard at Dusk
Photo credit: Agami Visual

About Atelier Architecture & Design (AA + D)

AA + D integrate architecture and landscape so both elements reinforce each other, enriching ecology and unlocking the human potential of a place. They reestablish the bond between individuals and nature, fostering a reciprocal relationship. They facilitate the creation of buildings within landscapes that serve as nurturing environments for people and the surrounding terrain. In today's fast-paced digital era, where connections with self and the environment are easily frayed, AA + D collaborates with clients to curate spaces that rejuvenate and inspire, in both urban and rural contexts.