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Garden Pavilion – Homage to a Benzoline Lighthouse

This project has transformed the ruins of a ‘Lighthouse’ weight tower with a Benzoline gas-generator into a garden pleasure pavilion. The original outbuilding, known as the ‘Lighthouse’ at Tamarleigh, once housed an ingenious and rare 1906 Benzoline-based gas generator. The ‘Lighthouse’ name derives from the tower end of the outbuilding, which housed the weight tower for the gas unit. A weight was wound up the tower, which under the force of gravity, supplied a constant mechanical pressure to produce a flow of gas to the house for lighting and cooking. Gas was created within a cylindrical tank unit, using a process that created gas from liquid Benzoline fuel. The process created an economical and high quality, hygienic gas with high quality light that was considered close to natural sunlight. This small-scale project, to create a little garden pleasure pavilion, set in course two ambitious objectives at Tamarleigh; firstly, a rescue mission to save the 1906 gas unit, and secondly, to create a new building referencing the original 1906 ‘Lighthouse’ outbuilding, to create a new place of reflection in the garden.

Architect

birrelli art+design+architecture

Contractors

Rosier Construction

Consultants

Structural engineer – Alan Leake

Building surveyor – Protek

Photographer

Felix Blackman and Jack Birrell

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