PERFECTLY FRAMED

摘要

After two years of intensive engineering research, Glasgow-based PagePark Architects' new headquarters for the Loch Lomond National Park Authority opened late last month. The elegant double-gabled office building stands in the quiet town of Balloch, on the banks of the loch, and has one of Britain's largest post-and-beam frames. PageYPark is already known for its timber projects, which include the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment Reid Station in Rowardennan, also on the banks of Loch Lomond, the National Museum of Rural Life at the edge of East Kilbride, and the Inverness Maggie's Centre. But this project is the practice's first time using greenwood - untreated timber which has a lower carbon footprint than other timbers due to the lack of processing - as a structural material. The 78 × 20m Douglas fir frame is the result of a collaborative effort between PageYPark, engineers Buro Happold, Timber Engineering Connections and SKM Anthony Hunt, and Carpenter Oak & Woodland (COW). The building's size and its integration with modern engineered timber makes it, according to Scott Fotheringham from project carpenter COW, 'architecturally a one-off'.