The Leaf Room, Ninewells Community Garden

The project was won following a national 2-Stage Architecture Competition to design a garden room at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

The leaf room is inspired from a natural form helping to connect the building to the garden it serves. The building is based on a folded leaf – using a green leaf shaped roof overhanging a rectangular shaped timber box underneath functioning as: living room, garden retreat, community room, and educational training facility.

The building is extremely environmentally conscious and is uniquely 100% off grid – having no mains service or electricity requirements. It is constructed primarily in Natural Scottish Timber and has many other environmental aspects such as the wood burning stove and rainwater harvesting from the roof to help water the garden.

Shona Robison opened the building on the 11th of November 2016 and Officially opening the room, said:

This is a wonderful space at the heart of Ninewells that truly makes the most of the hospital’s natural surroundings. I know that patients and visitors will get a lot of benefit from the Leaf Room for years to come and I want to thank all the charities and organisations who have helped to make this fantastic project a reality.

Gaby Laing, Heritage Officer at the Scottish Civic Trust said:

The Leaf Room totally encapsulates what the My Place Awards are all about: a beautifully and sensitively designed asset loved and used by the community.

Modest in its approach, the Leaf Room truly delivers far beyond its remit. In 2018, all eyes may be on Dundee for the opening of the new V&A, but the Leaf Room goes to show how much Dundee already has to be proud of in terms of civic pride and architecture.