Architecture & adaptive reuse
Buildings that outlive us.
A studio of eleven working in adaptive reuse, civic buildings, and sites everyone else called impossible.
2009 Founded / 11 Studio / 64 Completed / 3 Awards
01 — Selected work
Sixty-four built. Twelve worth showing.
Foundry Row
Nineteenth-century iron foundry converted to twenty-two dwellings, original roof structure retained.
Kilburn Library
Civic library and archive on a constrained triangular site with a protected plane tree at its centre.
The Salt Sheds
Three harbour storage sheds stabilised and reopened as a public market with minimal new fabric.
House at Cold Ash
A single dwelling on a north-facing slope, organised around the one hour of winter sun it receives.
Weaver's Yard
Mixed-use infill on a former mill yard, brick reclaimed from the demolished north range.
02 — In focus
Foundry Row
The brief asked for demolition and forty units. We argued for retention and delivered twenty-two — with the original roof trusses left exposed across every top-floor dwelling.
Foundry Row / 2024 / Adaptive reuse03 — Practice
We argue with the brief.
Most of our work begins with a client who has already decided what to build. Our first job is usually to test that decision — sometimes to our own commercial disadvantage.
On four occasions we have talked a client out of a new build entirely and into repairing what they already had. We would do it again. The buildings we are proudest of are the ones that were nearly lost.
04 — Client
“They told us our demolition plan was wrong, then proved it with a carbon model we hadn't asked for. We kept the building.”Development Director — Harbour Trust
Enquiries
Send us the difficult site.
We take on a small number of projects each year and are currently reviewing enquiries for 2027 commencement.
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