William Grant and Sons propose to build a new whiskey distillery on the outskirts of Tullamore, in central Eire, to return the distilling of this historic whiskey to the town where it was originally produced. The landscape design supports and reinforces the vision of a traditional ‘waterside’ distillery within a landscape setting, which aims to provide at its heart a quality visitor experience. The design proposals form an integrated, holistic approach which establishes a clearly defined, high quality ‘public’ face with a distinctly separate operating facility.
A traditional distillery pagoda roofscape acts as the distinctive feature of the development from the adjacent bypass, whilst a sequence of pyramidal earthwork features reflect the characteristic pagoda roofscape. The two key ingredients of whiskey production – barley and water, define the visitor approach, where mixed decorative grasses mimic fields of barley, whilst water is represented by a sequence of pools, lade and waterwheel. Elsewhere, rainwater swales act as aesthetic and functional features, assisting in separating visitors from the operational areas of the distillery.