The brief we received was to design a visitor centre and various outbuildings located on a private botanical farm in which the owner envisioned a repository of “African botanical research, history and knowledge.”

The design response was a simple yet elegant architectural language with relevance to the site which was previously an old chicken farm and set in amongst the Swaziland bushveldt. This location resulted in us drawing inspiration from the shape of the humble chicken shed and re-inventing this form for all of the various buildings at the centre, of which were all different in functionality however shared a common design aesthetic.