We were delighted to have been invited to build an octagonal oak and larch pavilion at the Purdey's Shooting School in Upper Basildon. Purdey has a reputation for quality and elegance, not only in their guns, but also in the architecture of the buildings on site. The commission was to build to a footprint of 6m diameter. The posts were aesthetically pleasing : 100mm profile, with deep chamfers to reflect the octagonal shape of the building, and were 2.4m high.  The knee braces were designed to reflect the angles of the intersections of the sides. - some complex maths was required, with the final angles on the braces being 35 degrees horizontally and 36.62 degrees vertically! To maintain the elegant aesthetics of the design, and to avoid the need for cumbersome internal roof bracing, a central post was fitted, helping to support the roof load.

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We were also asked to instal oak seating on 6 of the 8 sides, which was cut from 300mm wide oak beams sitting on 25mm wide spindles spaced at every 100mm along each side.

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The timber was sourced from air-dried local storm-felled English oak.  This offered a low carbon footprint option, compared to the alternative which was to acquire European oak from Northern Europe. The posts were individually selected to offer the most attractive characteristics. The decking was of 35mm thick rough sawn Larch planking, screwed with stainless steel screws.  the honey colour of the oak was beautifully complemented by the 'rust' colour of the larch. The roof was also of Larch shingles sourced from a family timber yard in N Wales.