Brothers Colin and Steve Wilson, garden-centre entrepreneurs in the Canadian town of Saskatoon, have chosen the British HPW Architects and the Dutch Thermoflor to build an impressive new garden centre for them.
Their new ?destination garden centre? will be twice as large as their present shop, with an area of no less than 12 ,000 m2. It will form part of a large new retail and leisure centre incorporating various other shops, a restaurant and a gym.?Saskatoon, to the east of Calgary, is a rapidly growing town in Canada that appears to be a promising market for the two young entrepreneurs.
The Wilson brothers wanted to be certain of working with the very best specialists in retail design, and that brought them to a combination of the British architectural firm HPW and the Dutch garden-centre specialist Thermoflor. Thermoflor and HPW have for quite some time already been working together in the British market, where we have created various attractive shops, e.g. for Rosebourne.
Smart combination with entertainment activities
The new garden centre will be built 200 metres from the present shop, which will remain in business until the new premises are opened. Thermoflor will start work at the site in August, so that all the operations will be completed before the local severe winter, which begins in December.
Because of the local weather conditions (extremely hot summers, very cold winters) the garden centre has a relatively short season. A smart combination with entertainment activities ensures that the building can nevertheless be used all the year round. Part of the greenhouse area is emptied for a few months a year to allow it to be used as an indoor go-kart circuit.
