Conservation & Heritage Issue 49 October 2025 - Flipbook - Page 124
The project recently won a 2024 Sussex Heritage Trust
Award, with the judges saying: “A brilliant re-working of
existing agricultural buildings to create a destination stop
and café. Inspired use of materials and reclaimed fixtures
and fittings. Wow! Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Shop is
holistic in its approach with rewilding and biodiversity, the
very concept of the Knepp Estate, at the heart of the project.
With clear contrast and sympathy between heritage and new
architecture interventions, the project has achieved excellent
sustainability credentials from the re-use and up-cycling of
materials, to the use of local timber, to the food served in
the café being locally produced to reduce food miles.”
Architects View: Working directly with the owners of the
Knepp Estate was an inspiring experience but challenged us
to push hard to find the best solutions for the project. Their
passion, drive, and commitment to ecological harmony,
sustainability and reuse made this project truly unique but
also had to be reconciled with the needs of delivering a
complex visitor facility.
From the wider masterplan to the detailed specification
there needed to be a clear philosophy and justification
to design decisions. There were areas that felt genuinely
experimental and it is clear that the site will continue
to evolve. As architects, we were challenged to be truly
collaborative and flexible in our relationship with the
client as well as the various contractors and specialists
involved. We were able to work with historic timber framers,
artists, ecologists and even a rammed earth expert – who
encouraged us to get ‘hands-on’ with ramming the earth.
Sadly, this is particularly rare in the current world
of construction.
The result, we hope, is a project that embodies the
ethos of the client and the estate itself: historically
sensitive, distinctive and designed to enhance the natural
environment as well as a great place to visit.
Michael Kaner and Toko Andrews
- Kaner Olette Architects
Clients View: We have long wanted a face for Knepp, both
to accommodate our wonderful visitors but also as a place
to educate and exhibit our rewilding process. Kaner Olette
Architects were flexible and proactive in their thinking;
they set a high level in their collaborative approach, working
closely with us to develop a project that truly met our needs.
We were particularly impressed with their innovative use
of natural materials and deep willingness to learn about
the site’s ecology to help create a space that honours and
enhances our rewilding ethos.
Charlie Burrell, Isabella Tree, Ned Burrell and Lia Brazier
- The Knepp Estate
Above, Sussex Barn, photograph by Richard Chivers
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