Ideas Factory/ the foundry

29 on the go · 3 materials
nothing here is finished

The site plan, north at the top, scale bar 0 to 100 m. The entrance is on the west edge, halfway down. Just inside it, a red dashed circle marks the hub: the reception and farm shop, then the restaurant and bar with its terrace to the south-west, staff and visitor parking, and the sewage treatment plant in the corner. The track splits into two loops. The upper loop serves ten 3-bed lodges for families and groups, five on each side. The lower loop serves fourteen 2-bed lodges for couples and small families, seven on each side. Between them, the dark belt is a strip of woodland with a 2 m bund along its centre. At the east end, a quiet belt of trees separates the tracks from a crescent of six 1-bed lodges for couples, adults only, each reached by its own thin drive and turned outward to the boundary. Every lodge has its deck, tub, timber arm and planted bank on the side away from the track.

← the floorWoodland Lodge Park/site·if / 064

Tracks, belts and dark sky

How thirty lodges share one wood without seeing, hearing or lighting each other.

The card

site 01 of 01

Tracks, belts and dark sky

site 01 of 01idea_064

The notes

rendered

The site is laid out so thirty lodges can share one wood without seeing, hearing or lighting each other.

the layout

The entrance is halfway down the west edge and leads straight into the hub clearing. From there the gravel track splits in two, and the two loops never meet again.

  • The upper loop runs east across the top third of the site. Ten 3-bed family lodges sit along it, five above the track and five below.
  • The lower loop runs east across the bottom third. Fourteen 2-bed lodges sit along it, seven on each side.
  • The east crescent. Past the quiet belt, six 1-bed couples lodges sit in a wide arc. Each is reached by its own short, thin drive from where the upper loop ends.

The two rows facing each other across the middle are staggered, so no lodge sits directly opposite another. Every deck faces into trees, never towards a track or another lodge. By the scale bar, lodges along a row are roughly 50 m apart.

the dark belt

A strip of uninterrupted woodland between the two loops, with a long, low earth bund about 2 m high along its centre. There are no buildings or tracks in it. The bund stops headlights on one loop from sweeping across the decks on the other.

the quiet belt

A narrow strip of woodland with no buildings, at the east end of both loops. It separates the family and 2-bed lodges from the adults-only crescent, so the couples lodges are the furthest from the hub, from the tracks and from children.

the treatment plant

The sewage treatment plant sits in the south-west corner of the hub, beside the staff and visitor parking, away from every lodge.

dark sky

  • On the tracks, low bronze bollards below knee height glow amber along one edge, lighting only the ground.
  • There are no street lights and no lights pointing upward.
  • On the decks, light comes only from lanterns, candles and the glow of the lodge glazing.
  • Inside, lamps run at 2200 to 2700 K with no ceiling downlights, so the glazing stays dark enough to see out of.

The point is the sky over the tub. A gap in the canopy is only worth having if the site around it is dark.

against the renders

The whole-site aerial has the layout right: the hub at the entrance, two separate loops, staggered rows and the crescent at the east end. Its middle belt reads as an open grassy clearing with a path, where the brief has unbroken woodland with a bund along its centre. It is an oblique golden-hour view rather than the straight-down autumn view the prompt asks for. The two canopy aerials show lodges hidden in the trees, as briefed, though both are at dusk rather than in overcast daylight. The night track has bollards on both edges where the brief has them on one, and the lantern walk is close to the brief.

The plates

6 · lift any one out
The site plan, north at the top, scale bar 0 to 100 m. The entrance is on the west edge, halfway down. Just inside it, a red dashed circle marks the hub: the reception and farm shop, then the restaurant and bar with its terrace to the south-west, staff and visitor parking, and the sewage treatment plant in the corner. The track splits into two loops. The upper loop serves ten 3-bed lodges for families and groups, five on each side. The lower loop serves fourteen 2-bed lodges for couples and small families, seven on each side. Between them, the dark belt is a strip of woodland with a 2 m bund along its centre. At the east end, a quiet belt of trees separates the tracks from a crescent of six 1-bed lodges for couples, adults only, each reached by its own thin drive and turned outward to the boundary. Every lodge has its deck, tub, timber arm and planted bank on the side away from the track.
01 · The site plan
Shot 02. A wide drone view of the whole site in low golden light, entrance on the left. Just inside the entrance road are the hub buildings, a long reception and farm shop and a larger restaurant with a terrace of tables on its south side, then a car park and a round treatment tank in the bottom-left corner. Two pale gravel tracks run east from the hub. Lodges with dark roofs, round tubs and a car each sit in rows along both tracks, each in its own pocket of trees, and the upper track bends north at the east end to a crescent of lodges facing out to the boundary. A hedge runs round the edge of the site. Off brief: the prompt asks for a view straight down in early autumn colour, overcast light and faint mist. This is an oblique view in golden light with mostly green trees. The middle belt reads as a long open grassy clearing with a path, where the brief has unbroken woodland with a grassy bank along its centre.
02 · Shot 02
Shot 07. Looking down at about 45 degrees over autumn woodland of oak, birch and Scots pine. Five long, low lodges with dark gable roofs sit in small clearings, each with a deck and a round, steaming hot tub lit by lanterns. Narrow gravel tracks wind between them, and mist lies in the trees. Off brief: the light is dusk with every lodge lit, where the brief asks for soft overcast daylight.
03 · Shot 07
Shot 07, second take. A higher view over autumn woodland in deep orange and green, with mist drifting across the top of the frame. Five lodges with dark roofs are scattered through the trees. Each has a lantern-lit deck and a round tub on the side facing away from the narrow gravel track. No lodge faces another. Off brief: as in the first take, the light is dusk with the lodges lit, where the brief asks for soft overcast daylight.
04 · Shot 07
Shot 22. A clear winter night on a narrow gravel track curving through tall Scots pine and birch, with frost on the gravel. Low bronze bollards glow amber along the track edge, lighting only the ground. Above the track the Milky Way runs across a sky full of stars, and far off between the trees is the faint warm glow of a lodge. Close to the brief. Off brief: there are bollards on both edges of the track, where the brief puts them on one.
05 · Shot 22
Shot 23. An autumn night on a leaf-covered woodland path. Two people in waxed jackets and wellies walk away from the camera, one carrying a warm hand lantern that lights the leaves and the trunks close to them. A golden retriever trots ahead. Mist lies low on the ground, and through the trees ahead is a lit building. Close to the brief. Off brief: the building ahead reads as a wide pavilion with a hipped roof and a row of lit windows, rather than a long, low lodge.
06 · Shot 23