Output details

The Workshop, studio and offices, Nether Edge, Sheffield, UK.

This project addresses two key questions facing UK’s cities, the balance of sensitivities of a conservation and heritage agenda against the need for a vibrant community and local economy; and how to engage existing building stock in relation to the critical agenda of environmental sustainability, the regulations of which have primarily been concerned with new buildings. The project addresses both of these within a limited budget.

The project refurbished and extended an existing addition to a stone Victorian Villa within Nether Edge Conservation Area, on the edge of Sheffield City Centre. Whilst the building was modest, it nonetheless represented a significant imposition, physically, culturally and economically, into a residential community where many of The Workshop’s employees live. Transformation of the building focused upon its scale and its face to the street. A new stone façade redefined the entrance to all the building elements and brought the extension’s perceived scale into dialogue with the original house and character of the area. The building is ambivalent in its references, situated somewhere between classicism and modernity. The elements are analogous to things that seem familiar, for example the entrance ‘table’ simultaneously refers to a classical loggia and Victorian garden structure. In this strange familiarity, the building established an attitude, played out in larger, current projects.

As a sustainability model it demonstrates that if considered carefully, unpromising existing structures can attain quality and longevity through relatively expedient and economic means. The project exceeds environmental regulations but importantly it allows opportunities for living and working to co-exist within a community and creates possibilities for sympathetic dialogue with an eloquent piece of historic city.

Awards: Best Building, Sheffield Design Awards 2011; RIBA National Award 2010; Finalist, European ECOLA awards 2010; highly commended in AR Emerging Architecture Awards 2009