Polk County Science Building, Florida
The stock of existing buildings is an asset of incalculable value: a vast store of embodied carbon, artistic invention, shared memory and latent potential. We regard adaptive reuse as a distinct discipline, vital to sustainable development and cultural continuity.
That work is a cornerstone of our practice. It encompasses care for celebrated historic sites such as the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Polk County Science Building in Florida, and the bold reinvention of characterful buildings like the Bolshevik Factory and Stanislavsky Factory in Moscow.
Bolshevik Factory, Moscow
Stanislavsky Factory, Moscow
All buildings contain within them the potential to be transformed into something newly productive and distinctive, without sacrificing their original architectural qualities. Our premise is simple: preserve as much as possible, change what is necessary, and ensure every intervention enriches the architectural experience. That takes practicality, imagination and judgement. The right approach is determined by the status and condition of a building and, in our work, falls into three overlapping categories: Repurposing, Repair and Renewal, and turning Old into New.
Msheireb Museums, Doha
Repurposing equips buildings for different uses with minimal intervention. By doing what is needed – no more, no less – even highly protected buildings can be successfully adapted. At the baroque King Charles Building on the Greenwich World Heritage Site in London, discreet adjustments to the original fabric and invisible insertion of low-energy services created a fully functional home for Trinity College of Music.
We are guided by a thorough understanding of historic significance and of conservation practices. Our Msheireb Museums in Doha, Qatar, were created from four merchants’ houses in varying states of disrepair, requiring multiple strategies within a single project: preservation, reconstruction of lost fabric, reversal of insensitive alterations, and discreet extensions to meet contemporary museum standards.
The Rounhouse, London
When change must be visible, historic buildings are best served by architecture that is complementary, not imitative. Remodelling of the Roundhouse turned what was originally a Victorian railway shed into one of London’s most successful performance spaces. The dramatic internal volume of the cylindrical building was preserved by concealing new structure in the conical roof, and placing front- and back-of-houses in a contemporary concrete addition wrapping around two-thirds of the brick drum.
The qualities of space and materials can contribute equally to architectural character. Retention of both was a key principle in our conversion of a disused nineteenth-century power station for Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Planning teaching spaces around an open ‘agora’ exploited the scale of a voluminous turbine hall, and exposed robust brickwork and gantry cranes.
The Global Leadership Centre at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
Repair and Renewal retains the original purpose of a building while improving performance. With buildings of architectural and historic significance the aim is to retain original fabric wherever possible. Deep knowledge of twentieth-century architecture has informed the renovation of many important examples, from the Streamline Moderne De La Warr Pavilion by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chemayeff to brutalism by Ernö Goldfinger, and Art Nouveau work by Charles Rennie Macintosh. The results of successful renewal are discreet but profound: in Glasgow, comprehensive transformation of the Burrell Collection designed by Gasson, Meunier and Andresen cut energy use and boosted visitor numbers while preserving its original character.
Peter Jones, London
Repairing buildings while in use presents a particular challenge. The end-to-end remodel of the famous London department store Peter Jones had to occur without closing the whole store for one day. A three-phase programme addressed a raft of defects so extensive that the owners had considered permanent closure. Radical alterations include a vast atrium that brings light, fresh air and ease of movement to the heart of the store.
28 Dorset Square, London
Old into New projects maintain existing uses, but address needs that require significant revision of the way a building works. Often this entails both heritage repair and expression of that change in new architecture.
Growing awareness of the environmental cost of wholesale demolition and replacement lends weight to the case for deep retrofits to extend the life of buildings. At 28 Dorset Square in London, we found a nineteenth-century townhouse that had been clumsily converted to offices, with a large, unsympathetic concrete extension behind. Replacement was proposed, but instead we were able to retain its concrete frame, chase new services into existing beams and remake facades in Jura limestone that echo Georgian proportions and the colour of London stock brick.
King’s Cross Station, London
Reinvention does not replace the old with the new; it allows both to coexist, each revealing the other more fully. The delicate balance is evident in the form of major alterations to King’s Cross Station in London and Central Station in Sydney. Airy new concourses that ease congestion are sheltered by elegant roofs of glass and steel that touch lightly on massive masonry facades of the original buildings. Precise engineering recalls the history of rail architecture, but the dramatic roof forms also signal a new role for the station concourses as welcoming public spaces.
For us, successful adaptive reuse makes buildings fit for purpose, honours their inheritance, and deepens the experience of architecture.
