The Renewal of Iconic 1970s Arup Modernist Offices and Gardens at ‘Plant’, Basingstoke Visit
The Renewal of Iconic 1970s Arup Modernist Offices and Gardens at ‘Plant’, Basingstoke Visit
Saturday 30 November 2024
Start time/finish time: 11am/1pm
Place: ‘Plant’, Basing View, Basingstoke, RG21 4HJ
A 15-minute walk from Basingstoke Railway Station. Car parking is available at Plant.
Martin Knight and Robert Shannon will lead a visit to ‘Plant’, Basingstoke, (formerly known as Gateway House) designed by Arup Associates Group 2 led by Peter Foggo and landscaping by James Russell.
Affectionately termed the ‘hanging gardens of Basingstoke’, Studio Knight Stokoe together with Twelve Architects have completed the retrofit and regeneration of ‘Plant’, Basingstoke.
The building, originally Gateway House, was designed in 1973 by Arup Associates Group 2 led by Peter Foggo (1930-93) with pre-eminent garden designer, James Russell (1920-96), for paper manufacturers Wiggins Teape. The gardens and building were both separately listed by English Heritage in 2015 for their design excellence and significance within British modernist architecture and horticulture.
The renewed planting design by Studio Knight Stokoe draws inspiration from the original design vision for the gardens; to be informal, elaborate, romantic, overflowing, and tumbling. Through extensive research conducted - including Russell’s handwritten planting lists - the listed landscape has been adapted to be climate resilient and regenerative.
Twelve Architects architectural interventions include double-height spaces to create vertical connections between floors, increasing the sense of openness and drawing more natural light into the plan, new level access from all storeys to the gardens and roof terraces, and a redesigned and expanded building entrance and reception area, enhancing the arrival experience and the visual connection to the refurbished gardens.
Martin Knight is a landscape architect and urbanist, and co-founding director at Studio Knight Stokoe. Robert Shannon is associate director at Twelve Architects and Masterplanners.
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Gateway House, Wiggins Teape
Credit: RIBA Collections
Photographer: Martin Charles