Outdoor Classoom

The recently completed Outdoor Classroom is a major commission designed collaboratively for Cove Park’s 50-acre rural site by architectural scientist Mae-ling Lokko and architect Tom Morton (Arc Architects) with young professionals and students in Ghana and Scotland.

The hybrid, eco-sustainable Outdoor Classroom was designed through a series of on-line and on-site workshops, involving the young professionals in Ghana and Scotland. Collaboratively, the group developed a complex Scottish Larch Gridshell structure with Morton. Following the installation of this structure, work on site then included extensive planting, using local flora, immediately around and within the open classroom itself, a process that was led by Rachel Bailey Garden Design, an RHS award-winning studio based in Helensburgh, with volunteers from the local area.

The final stage of the build has involved the installation of bespoke mycelium blocks, developed by Lokko at Cove Park and through workshops with local young people. Highlighting mycelium’s potential as a building material, these pieces will be placed within the bank of ground adjacent to the Classroom, creating benches for visitors and structures through which plants can grow and integrate further with the site.