Temper Studio + Four Feathers Adventures.

Stockpot & Two Smoking Barrels.

What is it?

Stockpot and Two Smoking Barrels is a mobile field kitchen and campsite hub located on a farm in the Wylye Valley, Wiltshire. Designed by George Winks of Temper Studio and converted from an old shepherd’s hut belonging to the client, Chris Wheatley-Hubbard of Four Feathers Adventures.

How it came about.

After moving his fledgling furniture design and manufacturing company, Temper Studio, to rural Wiltshire George met Chris and they discovered a mutual interest in time spent outdoors, in fields, woodlands and around campfires. As is often the case when likeminded humans sit around campfires they got to talking and out of talking tends to come ideas, most of which are rubbish and by morning forgotten. Sometimes, however, an idea refuses to be forgotten and the humans happen to possess all the required materials, skills, facilities and naivety to turn it into a real thing. Chris had an old shepherd’s hut rusting in a barn and a yen for a kitchen he could drag out into the fields and George had a workshop and unfulfilled architectural ambitions.

What is it for?

Much of the activity of Chris’ company, Four Feathers Adventures, centres around food – every part of the process from tracking, hunting, butchery, cooking and curing. The idea was to make a mobile space that could be moved to any part of his farm to serve a the hub of a campsite in which these food related activities would take place in a social atmosphere. A space to unplug, learn new skills, reconnect with nature and enjoy great food, from the land, in good company.

The Design

From the outset Chris knew that he would get something different by engaging George and Temper to design and build the hut. Keen to demonstrate that a rural setting does not necessitate a rustic or twee aesthetic, George drew heavily from the quiet, efficient minimalism of the Shakers, combined with his love of simple precision, restrained colour and clean space. Particular attention was paid to material combination and the play of light and shadow over the surfaces of the interior.

By opening up the entire side wall with bifold doors and facing the prep counters out toward the campsite, the hut was converted into both a refuge from the elements as well as a performative stage particularly suited to the social and demonstrative cooking it would facilitate. It features cabinets accessible from outside and inside, a gorgeous Norwegian Jotul log-burning stove which heats the hut and cooks breakfast and coffee beautifully in the winter months. A steel basin concealed beneath one of the counters can be heated on the stove for washing up. A modular peg system in the dark grey framework of the hut allows for furniture items such as bookshelves and drying racks to be moved wherever required.

  

In Use

This Winter being its first season in use it has been located close enough to Chris’ farmhouse for he and his fiancé Camilla, to have breakfast in it on crisp frosty mornings with the log-burner going and Jasper the terrier chasing sheep in the field.

Summer 2017 will see the hut take centre stage as part of a series of experimental weekend adventures led by Four Feathers and Temper Studio called WildLAB. Participants are invited to join us as we take on interesting projects and learn new skills in the workshop, fields and woodlands. Projects such as building a smoker to preserve food, making charcoal, building small structures, experimenting with little known outdoor cooking methods and generally being outside with interesting people, little technology, and excellent food.