Ongoing collaboration

Designed by six Architecture students from Newcastle University, the new Calvert Pavilion is a striking focal point of the newly created public space close to the zip wire facility.

The students worked with Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust's Art & Architecture programme and Calvert Trust Kielder to develop proposals aimed at transforming the previously underused site into a space that can be used for a wide range of individual or communal purposes.

The designing of the Calvert Pavilion is the fifth project to feature in an ongoing collaboration between the School of Architecture and the Development Trust to create public facing architectural commissions and installations.

Past work has included designing and constructing Rochester Roundhouse - an open air amphitheatre and contemporary timber pavilion which was highly commended for the RIBA Journal MacEwen Award; constructing a Stargazing Pavilion at Stonehaugh in 2014, building The Warm Room on Kielder's community campsite in 2015, and creating the timber-built Bakethin Hide in 2017.

Playful structure

Peter Sharpe, art and architecture curator for Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust, said: "Architecture students working on design and build projects at Kielder Water & Forest Park are now a well-established and highly rewarding annual feature of the Kielder Art & Architecture programme.

"The Calvert Pavilion represents a year's hard work by six dedicated and talented students who, when initially asked by Calvert Trust Kielder to propose ideas for this underused site, worked closely with the organisation to understand the needs of their guests, developing a Masterplan that proposed a series of linked areas for individual reflection, communal activity and spectating.

"The result of this hard work, their striking Calvert Pavilion, provides a place for guests to enjoy watching their friends take turns on the zip wire. Other elements of the Masterplan will be developed by future groups."

Professor Graham Farmer, Director of Architecture at Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, said: "This project demonstrates the value of teaching projects that engage with real world challenges, clients and users. The open nature of the brief meant that students were able to challenge and to question assumptions around designing for disability and access for all.

"The playful structure is designed to be interactive for all, but with an emphasis on small children who are not currently catered for on-site. The completed shelter is already proving to be a popular addition to the Trust's facilities."

Unique and accessible

The project has been funded by Newcastle University, Calvert Trust Kielder, Arts Council England and Northumberland County Council, through its Community Chest fund.

Councillor Trevor Cessford, chair of the Tynedale Community Chest panel at Northumberland County Council said: "It is fantastic to see projects that we have granted funding to come to fruition. This pavilion will provide a unique and fully accessible feature that I am sure will be well used and enjoyed. I am extremely impressed by the students design.

"Our community chest scheme aims to support Northumberland's diverse range of voluntary and charitable groups and organisations who are working hard for the benefit of local people across the county, and the pavilion is a brilliant example of this."

Adapted with thanks from a press release by Northumbrian Water

Photograph courtesty of Northumbrian Water. From left to right, Professor Graham Farmer (Newcastle University), Charlotte Crumbley and Martin Reynolds (Calvert Trust Kielder), Lynn Turner (Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust), and Councillor Trevor Cessford (Northumberland County Council).