Clifton Nurseries, Covent Garden, London
1980-1981

The garden shop in Covent Garden was the second temporary building designed for Clifton Nurseries on a short lease central London site. The prominent site was owned by the Royal Opera House, prior to their building their second auditorium – at that time the land was vacant and badly in need of regeneration.

The architectural response was to combine a formal solution deriving from the surrounding streets and buildings, with an exploration of the expressive qualities of new technology. The building is aligned centrally on the axis of King Street. Since land was available on only one side of the axis, permission was obtained for the façade to be extended along a narrow strip on the other side purely as a screen, to complete the symmetry and hide car parking behind. A classical portico, based on the numerous porticos of nearby buildings, was adopted and extended in a 'temple' form.

The interpretation of this classical form in the architectural detail of the new building was relaxed and light-hearted. The adoption of classical details went hand in hand with the introduction of modern technology, combined with a certain irreverence for their sources. The portico façade was a framework split along its central axis, each side containing planting and lighting displays that changed with the seasons. Indoor plants and flowers from the shop were incorporated into the glazed window-half of the portico, and outdoor plants were arranged in the open framework side. The open columns allowed for plants to grow inside, and all the columns had living plant swags. In this way, the business side of the shop – marketing plants and flowers – was reflected in live form and classical stone decorations (which, in turn, derived their forms from seasonal plant foliage). On the long façade a rusticated glass and timber wall, representing the heavy stone side walls of a temple occupied three of the four garden bays. A largely glazed, non-rusticated shopfront turned the corner below the pediment and occupied the fourth entrance bay in the manner of a temple stoa. The roof of the building was fabricated from Teflon-coated glass fibre, the first instance of use of this material in Britain.