Alnwick Gardens, UK.

The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland is one of the most exciting contemporary gardens to be developed in the last century – a beautiful public space, accessible to everyone. The Pavilion and Visitor Centre opened in 2006 and houses visitor facilities for eating, shopping, learning and relaxing. It is a contemporary structure formed of a timber diagrid roof with steel connections supporting an ETFE roof. 

DDA worked with SH Structures developing the connection design for the steel and timber structure including column fork end connections, inline splices and shear connections between timber and steel. All connections are visible and so the aesthetics of the connections are important as well as the capacity. 

The resulting structure maintains the overall look of the architect's original concept, whilst maintaining the fabrication and construction requirements of the fabricator.