RSPB Headquarters - The Lodge, Bedfordshire, UK

Mural for main entrance office building, completed 2003

Commissioned in 2002 as an ‘interpretation frieze’ to run high up around three of four main walls of the visitor entrance to the RSPB Lodge reserve the work was designed to fit around a number of small alcoves and door wells, and in total measured 15 metres x 1.2 metres. The sequence of drawings notes and sketches gathered during visits to the reserve were combined in an imaginative piece that would present to visitors preparing to enter the reserve a feeling for the characteristics of the reserve and an indication of the various distinctive habitat types and species likely to be encountered.   

Having drafted a number of ideas following a day-long sketching session at the reserve, I made a model of the room shape to determine the relationship between the panels and how they would appear seen at different angles from below.  

For more information about the RSPB and The Lodge in Bedfordshire follow http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/t/thelodge/index.asp

Above:  The maquette, part of the design process

Right:  Two main sections of the frieze