thomas heatherwick opens gin distillery for bombay sapphire

in the heart of the rural english countryside, renowned british designer thomas heatherwick has completed a distillery for gin-manufacturers bombay sapphire. while the company previously conducted their operations from shared production facilities, the new headquarters is seen as an opportunity to consolidate its manufacturing lines, thus improving efficiency.

the site originally functioned as a corn mill before before henry portal acquired the land in 1718 and began to produce the world’s bank notes. over the next 200 years a sprawling network of brick buildings were constructed, resulting in an uncoordinated matrix obscuring the river below. consequently, heatherwick’s team decided to organize the site around the waterway with a central courtyard positioned at the heart of the scheme.

two glasshouses house and cultivate ten important plant species used in the gin-making process
image © iwan baan (also main image)

the transformation involved the restoration of 23 the site’s historic buildings, in addition to conserving local wildlife and removing nine poor quality structural additions – a process the design team call ‘selective de-cluttering’. in order to make the water more visible, the river’s banks have been widened and reshaped.

the focal point of the redevelopment is two botanical glasshouses, one tropical and the other mediterranean, that house and cultivate ten important plant species used in the gin-making process. the precision engineered structures are constructed from 893 individually crafted pieces held within more a kilometer of bronze-finished stainless steel framing.

the precision engineered structures are constructed from 893 individually crafted pieces
image © iwan baan

the twin glasshouses spring from one of the mill’s historic buildings, reappropriated as a gin distillation hall that recycles heat from the active machinery. the new botanical distillery has achieved a BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating for sustainability – the first facility in the drinks manufacturing industry to be awarded this classification. see designboom’s previous coverage of the project here.

the transformation involved restoring 23 of the site’s historic buildings
image © iwan baan

project info:

project name: bombay sapphire distillery, laverstoke mill
location: laverstoke, hampshire, UK
category: industrial
commissioning date: 2010
completion: september 2014
client: bombay spirits company ltd.
scope of services: lead designer

site area: 20,235 sqm
gross floor area: 4,500 sqm
visitor experience buildings: 2,500 sqm
production facilities: 2,000 sqm
tropical house: 11 m tall x 9m across
mediterranean house: 15m tall x 12m across
environmental performance: international BREEAM award for industrial design for the bombay sapphire distillery process buildings

project team: thomas heatherwick, katerina dionysopoulou, eliot postma, alma wang, ville saarikoski

consultants —
project manager: meller ltd
executive architect: GWP
landscape architect: GWP
glass house structural engineers: ARUP
M&E engineer: couch perry wilkes
civil and structural engineers: graham schofield associates
planning consultant: CBRE
heritage consultant: giles quarme associates
environmental consultant: SKM enviros
horticultural advisor: royal botanical gardens of kew
process consultant: alectia
BREEAM assessor: project services ltd