Quarry Pavilion is now open. The shelter stands on the floor of a former chalk quarry in Kent, which has grown into a nature reserve over the years, and anyone walking the path along the rim can now come down, sit under a roof and look at the cut face of the chalk.
The pavilion is deliberately simple: a stone plinth, two thin roof plates on slim steel columns about five metres apart, and a small core for storage and a composting toilet. There are no walls. The plinth lifts the floor four hundred millimetres above the ground, which matters because the quarry floor floods after heavy rain.
Made from the quarry
The plinth is faced with chalk stone recovered from the site and laid dry. The columns and roof frames are galvanised steel, and the roofs are finished in zinc that will darken slowly and quietly.
Walkers, school groups and a local birdwatching society asked for somewhere dry to stop, and they were the first to use it. We spent the opening afternoon watching people choose where to sit, which is the best review a shelter can get. The pavilion is open to everyone, with no booking.