Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
The sensitive task of building a 60,000 sq ft motorway service area in the Cotswold landscape completed in 2014. The project, won by GHA in competition, sets a new sustainable standard for a difficult typology internally and externally.
To protect the immediate environment and avoid impinging on long-distance views, the main facilities building is bedded into the undulating hills, its roof hunkering down below the horizon, and its profile softened by its organic form and grassland covering.
Its interior reinterprets the rural vernacular in a contemporary manner. Cotswold stone and local timbers create a peaceful retreat from motorway journeys, an experience enhanced by a landscaping scheme that includes picnic areas and an ‘edible garden’.
"We were looking to build a new motorway service area on a greenfield site and wanted to create something sleek and contemporary, but at the same time, crafted, with a strong presence of natural materials." – Sarah Dunning, CEO, Westmorland