Postgraduate student Max Hubbard shares the story of how the new student pavilion in the gardens came about:
The project grew out of time spent in the student garden and greenhouse within the Xiaotian Fu Garden. Tucked away from the bustle of the centre of Churchill, it is a wonderful yet secluded green space, open to anyone who wishes to grow produce, read a book, or enjoy the sun. During my postgraduate degree I became close with the Grounds and Gardens team, particularly Kath, who was an advocate for student involvement in the college’s landscape. She spoke of the greenhouse gradually running out of storage space and of the need for a place where people could both work and gather. From these conversations emerged the idea for a simple pavilion that could function equally as a potting bench and a place to sit.
Inspired by a student-built pavilion completed at Jesus College the previous year, I approached the Estates Committee with a proposal to design and construct a sustainable, inclusive structure for the student garden. Beyond providing a useful amenity, the project sought to establish a model for future student-led building projects within the college. The pavilion was designed to make use of low-carbon, recyclable materials wherever possible and to repurpose materials already available on the Churchill site. The proposal was enthusiastically supported, and I was awarded £500 through the Tizard Student Opportunities Fund to purchase the remaining materials.
The form of the pavilion takes its cue from the bamboo bean wigwams used throughout the raised beds. Their repeated triangular geometry provides both structural stability and a visual connection to the surrounding act of cultivation. Rather than standing apart from the garden, the pavilion borrows its language from it.
Construction is deliberately simple. The structure is built primarily from standard 2×4 timber and plywood, funded through the Tizard grant, supplemented with reclaimed corrugated polycarbonate and floor tiles sourced from the Churchill materials store. While the design itself took only a few hours to develop, the process of making revealed far more than the drawings could anticipate. Built over two days with the help of friends, students and staff from across the college, the pavilion evolved continually during construction as practical decisions were made at full scale. As is often the case, building at 1:1 exposed opportunities and shortcomings that only become apparent through making.
The construction process itself became one of the project’s greatest pleasures. At the end of a long academic term, the pavilion offered a reason for people to come together, share skills, and build something collectively. As an architecture student, it is immensely rewarding to move beyond drawings and digital models to create something tangible that contributes, however modestly, to the everyday life of a place. The pavilion is intentionally open-ended. It is designed less as a finished object than as a framework for occupation and appropriation. It may become overgrown with climbing plants, serve as a place to pot seedlings, host an impromptu conversation, or simply provide somewhere to pause in the garden. Its bolted timber construction allows it to be repaired, adapted and disassembled with relative ease, inviting future students to extend and reinterpret it as their needs evolve.
