The nest

DARTINGTON, Devon

WoCo were commissioned by local social enterprise The Woodland Presents to design and make a demountable teaching and gathering space in the woods. The structure is situated in the North Woods on the Dartington Estate and was completed in 2018. The Woodland Presents is a social enterprise concerned with making small British woodlands thrive by connecting people with trees and timber in new and meaningful ways. The Nest plays a key roll in their activities relating to social forestry and the surrounding area is also used as an outdoor cinema space complete with bar.

The Nest was an ambitious project with many design challenges to overcome and WoCo designed an entire pre-fab system, which was then assembled on site. The entire structure can be taken down and moved to a new location if necessary and so the global geometry is modular to allow this process to occur. Each diamond features a locally sourced douglas fir frame internally, with a smart ply OSB3. Beyond there, the building envelope uses wood fibre insulation and recycled agricultural plastic for the external weatherproofing. Locally sourced larch was used for the external finish.

We are also working with The Woodland Presents on designing their WoodLab maker-space - a place for sharing woodworking machinery, knowledge and skills. We recently achieved planning permission for the WoodLab and the project is due for completion in November 2019. It is sited a few hundred metres from The Nest.

Services – concept design, research, detailed parametric design, fabrication, on-site construction