The site is located between a scattering of detached bungalows which form the hamlet of Slip End along the A505 dual carriageway, following the route of the ancient Icknield Way, and the gently rolling chalk downland to the south-east.

The clients bought the business in 2011 and gradually began transforming it to not only offer boarding kennels, but also dog walking, day care, training, grooming, and hydrotherapy. They initially appointed Zminkowska De Boise Architects to produce a masterplan for the site and to design a prototypical kennel for refurbishing the existing four kennel blocks.

As the first part of the masterplan, they acquired the adjoining triangular, 6 ha field to the south-east, to relocate access from the busy A505 to the quieter Sandon Road to the east, via a new driveway. They also erected tall fencing around the field and created a new dog park where staff and visitors can walk their dogs in a safe and social environment.

The visitor centre is located at the end of this new driveway, in a gap in the hedge between the original site and the park, and acts as a hub for dropping off and collecting dogs, and directing visitors to the facilities around the site.

The visitor centre draws on surrounding vernacular buildings, from agricultural barns and sheds, to the local village hall and cricket pavilion, for formal and material inspiration. Externally, the building has a simple geometric form, with one steeper pitched roof to the south-east, one shallower pitched roof to the north-west, a clerestory in between them, and a portico wrapping around most of the south-east elevation and part of the south-west. Viewed from across the fields, the building’s simple elemental form suggests a primitive hut in the landscape, but a closer study reveals a more developed response to site, brief, and tectonics.

The portico is constructed with over-sized timber posts and beams and covered with translucent profiled GRP sheet cladding, to signify and shelter the entrance door from the rain, to shade the large south picture windows from the sun from without, and to frame views across the park and fields from within.

The building is constructed with blue engineering brickwork plinth walls, with well insulated and sealed, timber framed walls and roofs above.

Externally, the walls are clad with black oiled vertical board-on-board timber cladding, and the roofs are covered with black PVC coated traditional "cast iron" profiled steel sheet. Detailing outside and in is straightforward, but well considered, joints between materials are expressed, and bolt, screw, and nail heads are exposed, and Zminkowska De Boise Architects worked closely with the building contractor’s pair of carpenters who were responsible for most of the work on site to achieve a good level of workmanship.

Internally, under the south-east steeper pitched roof is an open plan hall with a reception desk, small shop, café kitchen and seating area, and wide circulation areas between them for people and dogs. Under the north-west shallower pitched roof is an office, accessible toilet, and store and plant rooms. Finishes and fittings are robust and easy to clean and maintain. The floor is covered with dark grey terrazzo patterned vinyl sheet to provide a comfortable surface for dogs’ paws, and forgives a certain amount of mud and fur. The walls and ceilings are lined with birch plywood, which is sealed with gloss paint at low level for the same reason and in anticipation of regular re-painting, and is clear lacquered at high level for natural material warmth.

Natural lighting and ventilation is provided by the large south-east windows with side hung opening lights and the wide, north-west clerestory window with electrically operated top hung opening lights to catch the prevailing south-east wind across the site. These are supplemented by wall mounted uplights and ceiling mounted pendant lights, an underfloor heating cable system, and a heat recovery ventilation system, with electrical power generated from photovoltaic arrays on three of the adjacent kennel blocks.

The visitor centre has proved to be the key to unlocking the site’s potential, and this has been reflected by a 25% increase in visitors in the first year following completion.

Published

• Architecture Today, 1 June 2018

Photography by Zander Olsen