Langley Vale Visitor Hub

Satish Jassal Architects has developed a proposal for a visitor centre and learning courtyard at Langley Vale, Epsom, creating a landscape-led destination that connects visitors with nature and local heritage.

The design is organised around a central courtyard, conceived as a shared space for gathering, learning and exploration. The courtyard landscape acts as a living educational tool, incorporating a tree nursery, allotments for school groups, biodiverse planting and wildlife habitats. Together, these elements create a microcosm of the surrounding landscape, allowing visitors to engage directly with ecological processes over time.

A surrounding colonnade provides shelter and frames views across the wider site, offering spaces for informal exhibition, reflection and movement. The architecture reinforces this relationship between building and landscape, creating a seamless transition between interior and exterior spaces.

The entrance sequence is carefully aligned to frame views towards the nearby First World War memorial, establishing a strong visual and cultural connection. Within the main exhibition space, a stepped roof form rises towards the sky, punctuated by rooflights that bring natural light deep into the plan. A large stepped window further reinforces the visual link to the memorial and surrounding landscape.

Materiality is central to the proposal. Oak-faced plywood is used internally and externally to create a warm, cohesive environment, supported by a primary structure of FSC-certified glulam timber.

This project demonstrates how architecture and landscape can work together to create educational, engaging and environmentally responsive visitor destinations.