Buckingham Palace Ticket Office

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Erected every summer for the public opening of Buckingham Palace, it shelters its waiting customers under a soaring white canopy.

The pavilion is situated at the edge of Green Park, facing the Queen Victoria Memorial and in view of Buckingham Palace. It takes its gently curving geometry from the radius of the Memorial.  Every summer about 250,000 people visit Buckingham Palace, while the Royal Family are away. A demountable ticketing building was needed.

The 15m long cabin is built like a boat, with plywood ribs and a skin of horizontal cedar boarding, finished with yacht varnish.  The corners are rounded with carved quadrant spheres to create a smooth continuous envelope.  The cabin can be transported on a lorry and bolted together on arrival.  

The structure of the canopy of acrylic canvas is a clear expression of the compressive and tensile forces at work.  The cabin provides lateral stability, while the laminated masts and struts tension the fabric with steel guys, that tie the ends of the masts to the ground.  The whole is a finely crafted 'kit of parts', a small jewel designed to do justice to its important site.