The Clore Garden at Tate Britain transforms the existing landscape into a new biodiverse, seasonal garden. Led by Tom Stuart-Smith, the design responds to the site’s orientation and natural climatic conditions, evoking the changing seasons. Tate Britain has a long history of adapting its outdoor spaces, including their use as allotments during the Second World War. The garden and classroom revive this spirit of publicness, signalling a new era as the institution responds to the climate crisis. The Clore Garden offers an open invitation to engage with plants and garden design, and to rest, play, meet, and explore art within a beautiful and welcoming setting.

The footprint of the classroom is designed to articulate a series of functional outdoor yards, turning the constraints of the site into opportunities for outdoor activity. The construction embodies an ambitious environmental strategy: light-touch pile foundations protect the roots of a neighbouring Plane tree; passive ventilation, natural insulation, and triple glazing minimise operational energy use; and careful detailing reduces the embodied impact of construction. An ancillary structure houses supporting facilities, framing an enclosed back-of-house courtyard that includes a generous outdoor handwashing trough for visitor, volunteer and gardener use.

A spirit of re-use is central to the project’s material approach. A site taxonomy by Local Works identified materials such as concrete, Yorkstone pavers, and pink granite, which will be crushed to form aggregates for new paths and planting substrates. These aggregates will also inform elements of the building, with plant-based dyes adding colour to interiors. The primary structure is a lightweight, low-carbon timber frame, clad in tactile stone visible through planting. Reversing conventional hierarchies, Portland stone tiles form an expressive upper shell, referencing Tate Lodge, Stirling’s grid, and Smith’s portico. Fossil-rich limestone evokes geological time and the site’s proximity to the Thames.