2024 Study trip: The Weston at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

As we ease into the new year, we reflect on the inspiring journeys of the past one, filled with creativity and moments of repose. Below is the final post in our series reflecting on our studio study trip.

We had struck lucky with the weather on the trip so far, in what felt like a second summer… (if only we had the first!). But with the weather staying dry, we embarked on a joyful guided walk through the gardens and grounds of the YSP.  After being treated to numerous artworks, as well as James Turrell’s Deer Shelter Skyspace, we descended the hillside to The Weston visitor entrance, gallery and café. This is the fourth contemporary building in the YSP by Feilden Fowles, after those by FCB Studios, Tony Fretton and Adam Khan that tackles the relationship between built and sculptural form, and to the setting of park’s landscape and nature.

Leaving the park, and sheep, by passing through a timber gate, we gathered in front of The Weston’s the gentle curved elevation that emerges and welcomes you. This curve appears from the hillside in the form of a rammed concrete wall, to which the gallery space lies behind. The gentle hues of the aggregate and strata in the wall lead along to the floor to ceiling Douglas fir framed glazing, of the café. This space drops ever so slightly in the floor level to provide an extremely light and airy space bring the landscaped back into the building. A moment here to rest provided an opportunity to observe the detailing of the building that has created a calmness to the spaces from the landscape that sits in front of it.

Knowing The Weston was the end of our journey for the day, we sat unaware of our proximity to the M1. A result of the success in the linear plan acting as a barrier and threshold in and out of the park. We finally embarked on our journey back through the opening in the aggregate of the rammed wall, marking our exit, whilst still pondering on the architecture at the YSP and our thoughts re-animated to much of our own work tackling conversations between architecture, landscape and nature.

Text by Andrew Morgan
Photography by Andrew Harvey