Inside the therapeutic landscape of Ruskin Mill
A setting for revolutionary education
Ruskin Mill College is a vocational college for learners aged 16-25 with complex needs, located a ten minute walk from our studio in Nailsworth. The 140 acre site includes a wooded valley, a trout farm, market gardens, sustainably managed woodlands and a biodynamic farm. Nestled in the landscape are pottery, textile and woodwork workshops as well as a forge. These were all designed to blend in with the landscape and the mills, bringing unity to the college’s estate and the Horsley valley.
Austin Design Works has a wonderful history with Ruskin Mill. David Austin set up offices in the college in 1993 and was retained for 22 years as the resident architect. He grew his practice from there to form David Austin & Associates, which would later become Austin Design Works.
The philosophy of the college is rooted in the work of John Ruskin and Rudolph Steiner. It provides a therapeutic education, helping students to build self-confidence and self-awareness through practical work and land husbandry, and its influence is expanding internationally.
A long and deep family connection
David’s children Rachael and Matthew were teenagers when the practice was based at the mill, so they grew up up with the ever-expanding portfolio of the Ruskin Mill Trust. Their mother too, had a founding role at the college, developing the market garden and later gardening the valley between Ruskin and Horsley mills.
Rachael’s partner now heads up the horticulture and woodland management programme and is guiding the renovation of the valley garden after its establishment over 20 years ago. So the family remains in many ways involved.
Rachael says: ‘As adults, we can now appreciate the deep connection between this place, its landscape, people, buildings and our family. We are hugely proud of our parents’ legacy, what Aonghus Gordon and his staff have achieved at Ruskin Mill College and beyond. This special place and its ethos for a more compassionate future need to be shared.’
Ruskin Mill in 1992 before the renovation works.
Ruskin Mill after the renovation works.
An ever-evolving valley
Over the years, Austin Design Works has been engaged in many projects with the college, including the full refurbishment of Ruskin Mill and Horsley Mill to provide offices, workshops, a café, a refectory, teaching and exhibition spaces and accommodation, including apartments for students learning to live independently. These are all connected by the landscape.
The fish farm is a playful building that contains the hatchery. It is set into the bank of a stream, the grass roof blending into the valley. The bridge connects the building with the fishponds and is made with fish-shaped cut-outs along the side panels. These pieces have been welded to the footway, creating a paw-friendly path for the fish farmer’s dog! All the metalwork was fabricated locally.
Bridge with fish-shaped cut-outs.
Fishing for trout.
Beyond the valley, on the Gables Farm campus, we have also designed a woodland kitchen. Its spiral plan arose from the client’s desire to embody the spirit of self-exploration, discovery and transformation in its structure. The timber-frame construction uses native-grown timber; the roof uses earth excavated from the site and is planted with flowers found on-site using locally sourced seed. A wood stove, fuelled using timber harvested from the adjacent woodland, sits at the centre.
The refectory above is known as the woodland kitchen and is shaped like a nautilus shell. It is made with local larch cladding and has a grass roof. There is also a courtyard space where students and staff gather to eat in summer, celebrate successes and make pizzas when the oven is in full swing.
The wood workshop where traditional manually operated tools are used.
Therapeutic landscape
A therapeutic landscape is designed to stimulate the senses through colour, touch, taste, scent and auditory ambiance. There is a particular emphasis on the changing seasons, with a carefully considered mix of native and non-native planting to give the feeling of ‘walking through a rainbow’. Students often walk between the mills and the farm; this process of walking can help with the physical transition from one workshop to another. This journey leads along the valley, passing the green woodwork shop and the fish farm, then up through the woods past the woodland kitchen, livestock and horticultural gardens. Along paths are swishing grasses that move with the wind, and in winter bright red dogwoods.
The journey between the valley and the farm on the hilltop is part of the students’ daily route to lessons, allowing time to decompress and connect with nature.
Students were involved in many of the projects, including the construction of this red bridge that connects the two sites along the valley.
‘Fork to Table’ philosophy
One of the core ideas of education through the landscape is ‘fork to table’ - garden fork, that is! Students are involved in every stage of the food cycle, from planting and digging up vegetables to preparing them in the kitchens and refectory. The whole cycle continues through composting food and garden waste, which then nourishes new plants.
Students play a very active role in maintaining the landscape, which develops a range of skills and provides many therapeutic benefits. Tasks such as weeding and pruning promote dexterity and the repetitive actions can be centering for many students. Challenging tasks such as digging up a tree stump build confidence and a strong will.
Animals are not judgmental and their presence is very therapeutic for the students. There are donkeys, pigs, cattle and chickens as well as goats for milking. Connecting the students with creatures that need caring for, especially when young, takes them out of themselves and into another headspace.
The blue horticulture building is a traditional cold root store, totally enclosed but not artificially cooled. Produce such as carrots, beetroots and potatoes can be stored. There is also a drying loft where the pumpkins, squash and onions are stored over winter.
An ongoing relationship
Bernie Courts, Senior Researcher at Ruskin Mill Trust, said: “Austin Design Works has been invaluable in supporting us and helping us shape the college we have today, firmly based in the Arts and Crafts design principles, which are very much part of our ethos. Their ability to engage local craftspeople and our own students in the building work of these projects is also a really special quality that we have always appreciated and has allowed us to collaborate on projects at a very unique level.”
We look forward to continuing to work with Ruskin Mill College and to building bridges between local residents and the college. Rachael Emous-Austin recently hosted a walking tour of the area to show the range of structures and buildings across the valley. The philosophy of Ruskin Mill aligns perfectly with our own, of looking after people, place and nature.
