The Peak

Beaminster, England

2015

The Peak represents a new chapter in AA Hooke Park for the development of its staff and students while enhancing its position as a leading timber research facility in the UK and the World. Owing to its unique location, Hooke Park facilitates hands-on research on the implementation of new construction techniques related to wood and timber products. The Peak will serve as a dynamic testing ground for the expansion of novel design, fabrication, and assembly techniques unexploited yet in Hooke Park through its research strategies embedded in a continuous 3-year academic agenda that will involve collaboration, community and student feedback. In this respect, the Peak does not impose itself as a final design output but rather presents interesting areas of exploration which are open to variation and modification. 

The main objectives of the Peak are three-fold. For students, it will act as a vessel of design and hands-on research by resolving the challenges of different parts of a building in a continuous and carefully-structured academic agenda. For the community, it will bring together residents, architects, engineering firms, foresters, and wood-workers through workshops, conferences, volunteering work, and community events. For wider audiences, it will become a symbol of timber research and innovation by enabling national and international collaborations, while enhancing the functionality of the already established AA short and long residency programmes.